Nobel winner Nikolai G. Basov dies



Moscow, Russia | 17 July 2001 -- Prof. Nikolai Gennadievich Basov, who shared a Nobel Prize in physics for research that led to the development of lasers, died on 1 July 2001 at the age of 78.



Born in 1922 in the small town of Usman, in the Lipesk region of Russia, Basov is best known for his work with Profs. A.M. Prokhorov and Charles H. Townes, founding a new branch of science and technology, known as quantum electronics or laser physics. In 1952, Profs. Basov and Prokhorov were the first to demonstrate, on the basis of a theoretical analysis, the feasibility of constructing generators and amplifiers of electromagnetic waves, based on stimulated emission of quantum systems in a state with population inversion. In 1959, Basov and Prokhorov won the Lenin Prize for the discovery of this new principle of generation and amplification of electromagnetic radiation by quantum systems. In 1964, along with Prof. Charles H. Townes, they won the Nobel Prize in physics for fundamental investigations in the field of quantum electronics that have led to the discovery of masers and lasers.



Basov was always close to the global problems facing humanity. At a meeting of the Praesidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1962 and then at the International Conference on Quantum Electronics in Paris (1963), he put forward (together with O.N.Krokhin) the idea of achieving a thermonuclear fusion reaction by laser irradiation of a small target. At the time, the laser output energies were not even modest, so that initially the idea seemed to be unrealistic. However, Basov's scientific courage, his inexhaustible energy, stubbornness and persistence, and faith in the correctness of this scientific idea achieved the seemingly impossible: the first thermonuclear laser neutrons were generated in his laboratory in 1968 by laser irradiation of a lithium deuteride target. He presented the results at an international conference in the USA in the same year and provided a powerful stimulus for the development of work on laser thermonuclear fusion (LTF) throughout the world. At present, LTF is regarded as one of the promising approaches to peaceful utilization of thermonuclear energy.



Basov's contributions to science in Russia and worldwide are generally recognized. He was twice awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor, he was a Nobel, Lenin, and State Prize laureate, and he received the Lomonosov Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He became a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1962 and a Full Member (Academician) in 1966. He was also a member of the Praesidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Division of Quantum Radiophysics of the Lebedev Physical Institute; for many years he was the Director of the P.N.Lebedev Physical Institute, the Chairman of the Znanie (Knowledge) Society, and the Chief Editor of the journal Priroda (Nature). Basov was the founder and the Chief Editor of the Journal of Kvantovaya E?ektronika (Quantum Electronics).



Basov was a scientist who devoted all his strength, knowledge, and enormous talent to the development of science in Russia. He gave much attention to increasing the number of and to the training of young scientists. Many of his students and colleagues won their second doctor of science degrees and became members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He had an unusual feeling for the new, and was capable of generating many valuable ideas, had a surprising intuition, was creatively generous, very hard working, and friendly. All these qualities attracted and held scientists around him.



The international recognition of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute and its scientists is the result of the long and distinguished activity of Prof. N.G.Basov and his colleagues. With his death, the physics community lost one of the brightest and most admired of its members.



From OE Magazine Newscast