Zhores Alferov

Biography

Zhores Ivanovich Alferov was born on March 15, 1930, in Vitebsk, in what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. He grew up during the rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union and experienced the hardships of World War II and the postwar rebuilding of Soviet science and industry. His early interest in physics and engineering led him to study in Leningrad, where he spent most of his life. He attended the Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, now known as Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University, and had academic ties to the Belarusian National Technical University. He married Tamara Darskaya, who was his partner through many years of scientific and public life.

Alferov spent most of his career at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute in Leningrad, later called Saint Petersburg, where he became a leading applied physicist in the Soviet Union. He mainly focused on semiconductor heterostructures, which involve layered semiconductor materials with different compositions. During the 1960s and 1970s, he and his team developed double heterostructure lasers and high-efficiency solar cells, working alongside similar efforts in the United States by Herbert Kroemer. Their combined work ultimately transformed optoelectronics and laid the groundwork for modern fiber-optic communications, barcode readers, compact disc players, and LED lighting.

In recognition of his work, Alferov was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1984 and received several Soviet state honors, including the Order of the Badge of Honour in 1959, the Order of the October Revolution in 1980, and the Order of Lenin in 1986. His international recognition peaked in 2000 when he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Herbert Kroemer and Jack Kilby. Alferov and Kroemer were acknowledged for their development of semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and optoelectronics, while Kilby was recognized for inventing the integrated circuit. That same year, Alferov received the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 2nd class, followed by the 3rd class in 1999, the 1st class in 2005, and the 4th class in 2010, marking his enduring impact on Russian scientific life.

Beyond his lab work, Alferov became active in Russian public life. From 1999 he served as a deputy in the State Duma, representing the Russian Communist Party, a role he held for many years. He used his political platform to push for state investment in fundamental science and expressed concern about Russian scientists leaving the country, often referred to as the brain drain. He was vocal against what he saw as prioritizing commercialization over basic research.

Alferov passed away on March 1, 2019, in Saint Petersburg, just two weeks before his eighty-ninth birthday. His death was widely mourned in Russia’s scientific community, and he was remembered both as a scientist whose work influenced almost every aspect of modern electronic and photonic technology and as a public figure who tried to steer science policy in post-Soviet Russia.