Exactly 90 years ago, Nobel laureate and honorary citizen of Vitebsk Zhores Alferov was born. What is he known for?
Zhores Alferov was born on March 15, 1930, in Vitebsk. He assembled his first crystal radio set at the age of 10. Moving from city to city with his father, who was a military officer, young Alferov graduated from Minsk School No. 42 with a gold medal in 1947.
On the advice of his physics teacher Yakov Meltserzon, he studied for several semesters at the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute (now BNTU) in the Power Engineering Department, after which he went to Leningrad to enroll in university.
In 1953, Alferov began working at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute in Leningrad, where he became a top-tier specialist in the quantum physics of semiconductor devices, established a scientific school, and in 1987, became the institute's director. Incidentally, it was on his initiative that the departments of optoelectronics were established in 1972 at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute and the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, and at the latter, the Physical-Technical Faculty was organized in 1988.
In 1963, the researcher received his first patent. Alferov's work earned him the reputation of a pioneering scientist and laid the foundation for a new scientific school – the physics of semiconductor heterostructures.
Zhores Alferov also contributed to the creation of the first transistors, photodiodes, and germanium rectifiers in the USSR. He discovered the phenomenon of superinjection in heterostructures and proposed the principle of using heterostructures in semiconductor electronics. The solar batteries developed by him provided electricity to the Mir space station.
In 2000, Zhores Alferov, along with his American colleagues Herbert Kroemer and Jack Kilby, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their joint work in the field of modern information technology.
Thanks to the scientist's discoveries and developments, mobile phones, compact discs, merchandise tag decoders, automotive headlights, and many other everyday items were created. Zhores Alferov is the author of over 500 scientific papers and 50 inventions.
In 1995, the scientist was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. In 2001, the President of Belarus, for his significant personal contribution to the development of physical science, the organization of Belarusian-Russian scientific and technical cooperation, and the strengthening of friendship between the peoples of Belarus and Russia, awarded Zhores Alferov the Order of Francysk Skaryna, and in 2009 – the Order of Friendship of Peoples.
In 2008, Alferov established the Foundation for the Support of Education and Science. In 2014, he initiated the establishment of the Award of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Alferov Foundation for young (under 35) Belarusian scientists for scientific works and inventions that are of great importance for fundamental and applied science.
The scientist's research has been recognized with the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation, the Demidov Prize, and the international energy prize "Global Energy".
Zhores Alferov is an honorary citizen of Minsk and Vitebsk. Minsk Gymnasium No. 42 and Vitebsk Gymnasium No. 1 are named after him. In 1977, a minor planet was named in honor of the scientist. And a little later, the St. Petersburg National Research Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences was named after him.
Last year, on March 1, at the age of 89, Zhores Alferov, a native of Belarus and a Nobel laureate in Physics, passed away. Today, March 15, he would have turned 90 years old.