Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov

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Alexander Prokhorov, 1964
Prokhorov's grave in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow

Alexander Michailowitsch Prokhorov ( Russian Александр Михайлович Прохоров , scientific transliteration Aleksandr Michajlovič Prokhorov ; English transliteration Prokhorov; born July 11, 1916 in Atherton , Australia ; † January 8, 2002 in Moscow ) was a Soviet physicist.

life and work

Prokhorov's parents went back to the Soviet Union in 1923, where from 1934 he studied with Vladimir Fock at the State University of Saint Petersburg . In 1939 he graduated and went to the Lebedev Institute in Moscow to the Laboratory for Vibrations of Nikolai Papaleksi . He was a soldier in World War II, but returned to the Lebedev Institute in 1944 after a second wound. In 1946 he received his doctorate there with a theoretical thesis on frequency stabilization in a tube oscillator. In 1947, at the suggestion of Weksler (the inventor of the synchrotron in Russia) , he examined coherent synchrotron radiation for his dissertation. From 1950 he was Deputy Director of the Laboratory for Vibration Research at the Lebedev Institute (under Mikhail Alexandrowitsch Leontowitsch ), and from 1954 director. He was also a professor at Lomonosov University . In 1955 he and Bassow developed the concept of optical pumping and the maser principle. Various burls were built at the institute in the 1950s. As part of the investigation of the electron spin resonance spectra of Rubin , he discovered its potential as a laser material in 1957 and proposed the construction of a ruby ​​laser in 1958, which was first realized by Theodore Maiman in 1960. Parallel work on the development of the measles or laser took place in the USA by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow .

From 1971 to 1990 he was the editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (where he insisted on including Andrei Sakharov when he was already officially ostracized). From 1973 to 1991 he was Vice Director of the Lebedev Institute and at the same time chairman of the Physics and Astronomy Department of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1983 to 1998 he was director of the Institute for Physics and Technology (Institute for General Physics) in Moscow, then Honorary Director until his death in 2001.

He was married to Galina Shelepina and had a son.

Awards and honors

Since 2013, the Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded the Prokhorov Gold Medal ( Russian Золотая медаль имени А.М. Прохорова ) for outstanding achievements in the field of physics .

Books

  • AM Prokhorov (editors), JM Buzzi, P. Sprangle and K. Wille: Coherent Radiation Generation and Particle Acceleration , 1992, ISBN 0-88318-926-7 . Research Trends in Physics Series, American Institute of Physics Press
  • V. Stefan and AM Prokhorov (editors): Diamond Science and Technology . 2 volumes, Stefan University Press, (Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology), 1999. ISBN 1-889545-23-6 (Volume 1), ISBN 1-889545-24-4 (Volume 2)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alexander Prokhorov on the official website of the Prokhorov Institute for General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved June 22, 2018 (Russian).
  2. ↑ A. M. Prokhorov Gold Medal. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 4, 2018 (in Russian).

Web links

Commons : Aleksandr Prokhorov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Prokhorov, Alexander Mikhailovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Прохоров, Александр Михайлович (Russian); Prochorov, Aleksandr Michajlovič (scientific transliteration); Prokhorov, Alexander (English transliteration)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Atherton , Australia
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 2002
Place of death Moscow , Russia