Biography of Zhores Alferov

Electrons of the modern era

March 15, 1930 Zhores Ivanovich Alferov was born on March 15, 1930 in Vitebsk (Belarus) into a family of modest conditions: from childhood shows an excellent powers of observation and deduction of natural phenomena, being likened by his teachers at a "new Newton". He attended high school in the city of Minsk and in 1952 he graduated from the Department of electronics of the Lenin Electrotechnical Institute in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), where he obtained his doctorate in physics and mathematics (1970) and where he manages several positions, including Director and Scientific Director of the Institute. In 1962 Alferov became interested in physics and electronics of semiconductor heterostructures of III/V Group: continues to apply to the matter, providing contributions so important to form the basis for the creation of the modern lasers, solar cells, light-emitting diodes and light sensors. Zhores Alferov receives the Lenin Prize in 1972, the most important scientific award. In 1989 was elected to the Presidency of the "Leningrad Science Centre" of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1990 he was elected vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences ", while in 1995 is a science and education advisor of the Duma, trying to promote scientific research in government bodies. Receives the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics together with Herbert Kroemer for "developing the semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed electronics and optoelectronics". Two years later received the Gold Plaque for academic achievement in the United States, the Gold Medal of the international society of optical engineering and finally in 2005 the Global Energy Prize of the Russian Federation. Currently he is scientific director of the Centre for the physics of Hetero-nanostructures at the Ioffe Institute, Russia, and is the editor of the newspaper "Technical Physical Letters, through the pages of which promotes relentlessly science in all its forms, as the main engine of the progress of civilization. particular attention is paid to energy resources as a scholar of Alferov, especially as regards photovoltaic solar energy conversion optimization, trying to apply his knowledge about semiconductors of which holds the highest expertise.