Alexander Lwowitsch Efros (russian: Александр Львович Эфрос) is a Russian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

. Efros is co-discoverer, along with Louis Brus and

Alexey Ekimov Alexey I. Ekimov is a Russian solid state physicist who discovered the semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots, while working at the Vavilov State Optical Institute. He was awarded the 1975 USSR State Prize in Science and Engineering for ...

, of semiconducting nanocrystals known as

quantum dots Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size, having optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles as a result of quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology. When the ...

. Efros graduated as a physical engineer in 1973 from the Leningrad Technological Institute and received his doctorate there in 1978. He was a scientist at the

Ioffe Institute The Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (for short, Ioffe Institute, russian: Физико-технический институт им. А. Ф. Иоффе) is one of Russia's largest research centers specialized ...

in Leningrad from 1981 to 1990, at which time he moved to the West. He was at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

from 1990 to 1992, at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

as visiting scientist from 1992 to 1993. Since 1993 he has been an advisor at the

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

. There, since 1999, he has held the role of senior researcher at its Center for Computational Materials Science. In 2001, Efros became a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He received the R. W. Wood Prize in 2006, and the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in 2008 for his work on quantum dots.

References

Russian physicists Quantum dots Living people Technical University of Munich alumni Humboldt Research Award recipients Fellows of the American Physical Society Year of birth missing (living people) Soviet physicists {{Russia-physicist-stub