Laser Pioneer and Nobel laureate Alexander Prokhorov Dies

Jan. 10, 2002
Alexander Prokhorov, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for work that led to the development of the laser, has died. Prokhorov won the Nobel Prize with colleague Nikolai Basov and Charles Townes of the US for work in the field of quantum electronics

Alexander Prokhorov, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for work that led to the development of the laser, has died. Prokhorov won the Nobel Prize with colleague Nikolai Basov and Charles Townes of the US for work in the field of quantum electronics. The Soviet scientists worked separately from Townes, but their developments were in parallel.

Townes is credited with developing the first maser - a beam of coherent microwave radiation analogous to a laser - in 1953, while Prokhorov and Basov produced a similar device the next year. That development preceded the laser.

Born July 11, 1916 in Australia, Prokhorov went with his family to the Soviet Union after the October Revolution, according to the official web site of the Nobel Foundation.

Prokhorov's studies in physics were interrupted when he served in the Red Army during World War II and was wounded twice. After the second injury in 1944, Prokhorov returned to his studies. He went on to head the department of physics and astronomy in the Russian Academy of Sciences, and won numerous awards in the Soviet Union.

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