
This list of 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 ...
s includes the famous physicists from the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.
Alphabetical list
__NOTOC__
A
*
Alexei Abrikosov, discovered how
magnetic flux can penetrate a
superconductor (the
Abrikosov vortex),
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...
winner
*
Franz Aepinus, related
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
and
magnetism
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...
, proved the electric nature of
pyroelectricity, explained
electric polarization and
electrostatic induction, invented
achromatic microscope
*
Zhores Alferov, inventor of modern
heterotransistor A heterojunction is an interface between two layers or regions of dissimilar semiconductors. These semiconducting materials have unequal band gaps as opposed to a homojunction. It is often advantageous to engineer the electronic energy bands in many ...
, Nobel Prize winner
*
Sergey Alekseenko, director of the
Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Global Energy Prize recipient
*
Artem Alikhanian, a prominent researcher of
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...
, inventor of wide-gap track
spark chamber
*
Abram Alikhanov,
nuclear physicist, a prominent researcher of
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...
, built the first
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
s in the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
, founder of
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP)
*
Semen Altshuler, researched
EPR and
NMR, predicted
acoustic paramagnetic resonance
*
Lev Artsimovich, builder of the first
tokamak, researcher of high temperature
plasma
*
Gurgen Askaryan, predicted
self focusing Gas focusing, also known as ionic focusing.
Rather than being dispersed, a beam of charged particles travelling in an inert gas environment sometimes becomes narrower. This is ascribed to the generation of gas ions which diffuse outwards, neutral ...
of light, discovered
Askaryan effect in the
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...
B
*
Nikolay Basov, physicist, co-inventor of
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The firs ...
and
maser, Nobel Prize winner
*
Nikolay Bogolyubov, mathematician and theoretical physicist, co-developed the
BBGKY hierarchy, formulated a microscopic theory of
superconductivity, suggested a triplet
quark model, introduced a new quantum degree of freedom (
color charge)
*
Matvei Petrovich Bronstein, theoretical physicist, a pioneer of quantum gravity, author of works in astrophysics, semiconductors, quantum electrodynamics and cosmology.
*
Gersh Budker
Gersh Itskovich Budker (Герш Ицкович Будкер), also named Andrey Mikhailovich Budker (1 May 1918 – 4 July 1977), was a Soviet physicist, specialized in nuclear physics and accelerator physics.
Biography
He was elected a Correspo ...
, inventor of
electron cooling, co-inventor of
collider
C
*
Sergey Chaplygin, a founder of
aero- and
hydrodynamics, formulated the
Chaplygin's equations and
Chaplygin gas concept

*
Pavel Cherenkov, discoverer of
Cherenkov radiation, Nobel Prize winner
D
*
Yuri Denisyuk
Yuri Nikolayevich Denisyuk (Russian: Юрий Денисюҝ; July 27, 1927 in Sochi — May 14, 2006 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian physicist and one of the founders of optical holography in the former Soviet Union. He is known for his great c ...
, inventor of
3D holography
F
*
Ludvig Faddeev, discoverer of
Faddeev–Popov ghosts and
Faddeev equations in
quantum physics
*
Georgy Flyorov,
nuclear physicist, one of the initiators of the
Soviet atomic bomb project, co-discoverer of
seaborgium and
bohrium, founder of the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
*
Vladimir Fock, developed the
Fock space,
Fock state and the
Hartree–Fock method
In computational physics and chemistry, the Hartree–Fock (HF) method is a method of approximation for the determination of the wave function and the energy of a quantum many-body system in a stationary state.
The Hartree–Fock method ofte ...
in
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, q ...
*
Ilya Frank
Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (russian: Илья́ Миха́йлович Франк; 23 October 1908 – 22 June 1990) was a Soviet winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958 jointly with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Igor Y. Tamm, also of t ...
, explained the phenomenon of
Cherenkov radiation, Nobel Prize winner
*
Vsevolod Frederiks (Fréedericksz), discovered the
Fréedericksz transition, the Fréedericksz critical field in
liquid crystals
*
Yakov Frenkel, coined the term
electron hole, discovered the
Frenkel defect
In crystallography, a Frenkel defect is a type of point defect in crystalline solids, named after its discoverer Yakov Frenkel. The defect forms when an atom or smaller ion (usually cation) leaves its place in the lattice, creating a vacancy ...
of a
crystal lattice, described the
Poole–Frenkel effect in
solid-state physics
G
*
Andre Geim, inventor of
graphene, developer of
gecko tape, Nobel Prize winner and at the same time
Ig Nobel Prize winner for
diamagnetic levitation of a living
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...
*
Vitaly Ginzburg, co-author of the
Ginzburg–Landau theory of
superconductivity, a developer of
hydrogen bomb, Nobel Prize winner
*
Vladimir Gribov, introduced
pomeron
In physics, the pomeron is a Regge trajectory — a family of particles with increasing spin — postulated in 1961 to explain the slowly rising cross section of hadronic collisions at high energies. It is named after Isaak Pomeranchuk.
Overview
W ...
,
DGLAP equations and
Gribov ambiguity
*
Aleksandr Gurevich, author of the
runaway breakdown theory of
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average ...
I
*
Abram Ioffe, founder of the Soviet physics school, tutor of many prominent scientists
*
Dmitri Ivanenko
Dmitri Dmitrievich Ivanenko (russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Иване́нко; July 29, 1904 – December 30, 1994) was a Ukrainian theoretical physicist who made great contributions to the physical science of the twentieth cent ...
, pioneered the modelling of
nuclear shell and
nuclear forces
The nuclear force (or nucleon–nucleon interaction, residual strong force, or, historically, strong nuclear force) is a force that acts between the protons and neutrons of atoms. Neutrons and protons, both nucleons, are affected by the nuc ...
, predicted
synchrotron radiation, suggested the
quark stars existence
J
*
Boris Jacobi, formulated the
Maximum power theorem In electrical engineering, the maximum power transfer theorem states that, to obtain ''maximum'' external power from a power source with internal resistance, the resistance of the load must equal the resistance of the source as viewed from its ou ...
in
electrical engineering, invented
electroplating
Electroplating, also known as electrochemical deposition or electrodeposition, is a process for producing a metal coating on a solid substrate through the redox, reduction of cations of that metal by means of a direct current, direct electric cur ...
,
electrotyping,
galvanoplastic sculpture and
electric boat
K
*
Pyotr Kapitsa, originated the techniques for creating ultrastrong
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and t ...
s, co-discovered a way to measure the magnetic field of an
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden experiments, Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After th ...
discovered
superfluidity, Nobel Prize winner
*
Yuly Khariton
Yulii Borisovich Khariton ( Russian: Юлий Борисович Харитон, 27 February 1904 – 19 December 1996), also known as YuB, , was a Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet Union's program of nuclear we ...
, chief designer of the
Soviet atomic bomb
The Soviet atomic bomb project was the classified research and development program that was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II.
Although the Soviet scientific community dis ...
, co-developer of the
Tsar Bomb
The Tsar Bomba () (code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Overall, the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakh ...
*
Orest Khvolson, first to study the
Chwolson ring
An Einstein ring, also known as an Einstein–Chwolson ring or Chwolson ring (named for Orest Chwolson), is created when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object en route to the Earth. Due to gravitational lensing, the light is diver ...
effect of
gravitational lensing
*
Sergey Krasnikov Serguei Vladilenovich Krasnikov (russian: Серге́й Владиле́нович Кра́сников; 1961) is a Russian physicist.
Life
Krasnikov obtained a doctorate ( CSc.) in physics and mathematics from Saint Petersburg University. He is ...
, developer of the
Krasnikov tube, a speculative mechanism for space travel

*
Igor Kurchatov, builder of the first
nuclear power plant, developer of the first
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
s for
surface ships
L
*
Lev Landau, theoretical physicist, developed the
Ginzburg–Landau theory of
superconductivity, explained the
Landau damping in
plasma physics, pointed out the
Landau pole in
quantum electrodynamics, co-author of the famous ''
Course of Theoretical Physics
The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s.
It is said that Lan ...
'', Nobel Prize winner
*
Grigory Landsberg, co-discoverer of
Raman scattering of light
*
Mikhail Lavrentyev, physicist and mathematician, founded the Siberian Division of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences and
Akademgorodok
Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and about west of Koltsovo. It is the educ ...
in
Novosibirsk
*
Pyotr Lebedev, the first to measure the
radiation pressure on a solid body, thus proving the
Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism
*
Heinrich Lenz, discovered the
Lenz's law of
electromagnetism
*
Aleksandr Il'ich Leipunskii
Aleksandr Il'ich Leipunskii (7 December 1903 – 14 August 1972) was a Polish-born Jewish physicist.
He was born in the small village of Dragli, Russian Poland. In 1921, he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1926. He then ...
, pioneered the development of fast breeder reactors in the USSR.
*
Evgeny Lifshitz, an author of the
BKL singularity model of the Universe evolution, co-author of the famous ''
Course of Theoretical Physics
The ''Course of Theoretical Physics'' is a ten-volume series of books covering theoretical physics that was initiated by Lev Landau and written in collaboration with his student Evgeny Lifshitz starting in the late 1930s.
It is said that Lan ...
''

*
Mikhail Lomonosov, polymath scientist, artist and inventor, proposed the law of
conservation of matter, disproved the
phlogiston theory
*
Oleg Losev, inventor of
light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light ( ...
and
crystadine
M
*
Alexander Makarov, inventor of
orbitrap
*
Boris Mamyrin
Boris Aleksandrovich Mamyrin (russian: Борис Александрович Мамырин; 25 May 1919 5 March 2007) was a Soviet scientist best known for his invention of the electrostatic ion mirror mass spectrometer known as the reflectron.
...
, inventor of
reflectron
*
Leonid Mandelshtam
Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam or Mandelshtam ( be, Леанід Ісаакавіч Мандэльштам; rus, Леонид Исаакович Мандельштам, p=lʲɪɐˈnʲit ɨsɐˈakəvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam, a=Ru-Leonid_Mande ...
, co-discoverer of the
Raman effect
*
Stanislav Mikheyev, co-discoverer of the
Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein effect of
neutrino oscillations
N

*
Konstantin Novoselov, inventor of
graphene, developer of
gecko tape, Nobel Prize winner
O
*
Yuri Oganessian,
nuclear physicist in the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), co-discoverer of the heaviest elements in the periodic table; element
Oganesson
P
*
Vasily Petrov, discoverer of
electric arc, proposed
arc lamp and
arc welding
*
Boris Podolsky, an author of
EPR Paradox in
quantum physics
*
Alexander Polyakov, developed the concepts of
Polyakov action,
't Hooft–Polyakov monopole __NOTOC__
In theoretical physics, the t Hooft–Polyakov monopole is a topological soliton similar to the Dirac monopole but without the Dirac string. It arises in the case of a Yang–Mills theory with a gauge group G, coupled to a Higgs field whi ...
and
BPST instanton
*
Isaak Pomeranchuk, predicted
synchrotron radiation
*
Bruno Pontecorvo, a founder of
neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
high energy physics, his work led to the discovery of
PMNS matrix
*
Alexander Popov, inventor of
lightning detector, one of the
inventors of radio, recorded the first experimental
radiolocation at sea
*
Victor Popov
Victor Nikolaevich Popov (russian: Ви́ктор Никола́евич Попо́в; 27 October 1937 – 16 April 1994) was a Russian theoretical physicist known for his contribution to the quantization of non-abelian gauge fields. His work wi ...
, co-discoverer of
Faddeev–Popov ghosts in
quantum field theory
*
Alexander Prokhorov, co-inventor of
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The firs ...
and
maser, Nobel Prize winner
R
*
Georg Wilhelm Richmann, inventor of
electrometer, pioneer researcher of
atmospheric electricity, killed by a
ball lightning in experiment
S
*
Andrei Sakharov, co-developer of
tokamak and the
Tsar Bomb
The Tsar Bomba () (code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Overall, the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakh ...
, inventor of
explosively pumped flux compression generator,
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
winner
*
Nikolay Semyonov, physical chemist, co-discovered a way to measure the magnetic field of an
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden experiments, Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After th ...
, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
*
Lev Shubnikov
Lev Vasilyevich Shubnikov (russian: Лев Васи́льевич Шу́бников; uk, Лев Васильович Шубников) (September 29, 1901 – November 10, 1937) was a Soviet experimental physicist who worked in the Netherlands ...
, discoverer of
Shubnikov–de Haas effect, one of the first researchers of
solid hydrogen and
liquid helium
Liquid helium is a physical state of helium at very low temperatures at standard atmospheric pressures. Liquid helium may show superfluidity.
At standard pressure, the chemical element helium exists in a liquid form only at the extremely low t ...
*
Dmitri Skobeltsyn
Dmitri Vladimirovich Skobeltsyn (russian: Дмитрий Владимирович Скобельцын) (November 24, 1892 in Saint Petersburg – November 16, 1990) was a Soviet physicist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1946), ...
, first to use
cloud chamber for studying
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...
, the first to observe
positrons
*
Alexei Smirnov, co-discoverer of
Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein effect of
neutrino oscillations
*
Arseny Sokolov, co-discoverer of
Sokolov–Ternov effect, a developer of
synchrotron radiation theory
*
Mark Stockman, optical physicist, co-discoverer of
spaser
*
Aleksandr Stoletov, inventor of
photoelectric cell, built the
Stoletov curve
Stoletov curve shows the dependence of the magnetic permeability \chi of ferromagnetics on the intensity of the applied magnetic field ''H''. The curve is named after physicist Aleksandr Stoletov who analyzed in a long series of experiments the mag ...
and pioneered the research of
ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials a ...
T
*
Igor Tamm, explained the phenomenon of
Cherenkov radiation, co-developer of
tokamak, Nobel Prize winner
*
Karen Ter-Martirosian, theoretical physicist, known for his contributions to
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, q ...
and
quantum field theory, founder of the
Elementary Particle Physics chair of the
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; russian: Московский Физико-Технический институт, also known as PhysTech), is a public university, public research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. I ...
*
Igor Ternov, co-discoverer of
Sokolov–Ternov effect of
synchrotron radiation
U
*
Nikolay Umov, discovered the
Umov-Poynting vector
In physics, the Poynting vector (or Umov–Poynting vector) represents the directional energy flux (the energy transfer per unit area per unit time) or '' power flow'' of an electromagnetic field. The SI unit of the Poynting vector is the watt ...
and
Umov effect The Umov effect, also known as Umov's law, is a relationship between the albedo of an astronomical object, and the degree of polarization of light reflecting off it. The effect was discovered by the Russian physicist Nikolay Umov in 1905, and can ...
, the first to propose the formula
*
Petr Ufimtsev
Pyotr Yakovlevich Ufimtsev (sometimes also Petr; russian: Пётр Я́ковлевич Уфи́мцев) (born 1931 in Ust-Charyshskaya Pristan, West Siberian Krai, now Altai Krai) is a Soviet/Russian physicist and mathematician, considered the se ...
, developed the theory that led to modern
stealth technology
V
*
Sergey Vavilov
Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov (russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Вави́лов) ( – January 25, 1951) was a Soviet physicist, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union from July 1945 until his death. His elder broth ...
, co-discoverer of
Cherenkov radiation, formulated the
Kasha–Vavilov rule of
quantum yields

*
Vladimir Veksler, inventor of
synchrophasotron
The Synchrophasotron was a synchrotron-based particle accelerator for protons at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna that was operational from 1957 to 2003. It was designed and constructed under supervision of Vladimir Veksler, who ha ...
, co-inventor of
synchrotron
*
Evgeny Velikhov
Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov (born on February 2, 1935; in Russian: ''Евгений Павлович Велихов'') is a physicist and scientific leader in the Russian Federation. His scientific interests include plasma physics, lasers, control ...
, leader of the international program
ITER (thermonuclear experimental
tokamak)
*
Anatoly Vlasov, developed the
Vlasov equation in
plasma physics
Y
*
Alexey Yekimov, discoverer of
quantum dot
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 q ...
s
Z
*
Yevgeny Zavoisky
Yevgeny Konstantinovich Zavoisky (russian: Евгений Константинович Завойский; September 28, 1907 – October 9, 1976) was a Soviet physicist known for discovery of electron paramagnetic resonance in 1944. He likely obs ...
, inventor of
EPR spectroscopy, co-developer of
NMR spectroscopy
*
Yakov Zel'dovich
Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich ( be, Я́каў Бары́савіч Зяльдо́віч, russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Зельдо́вич; 8 March 1914 – 2 December 1987), also known as YaB, was a leading Soviet physicist of Bel ...
, physicist and cosmologist, predicted the
beta decay of a
pi meson and the
muon catalysis
Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycl ...
, co-predicted the
Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect of CMB distortion

*
Nikolai Zhukovsky, a founder of
aero- and
hydrodynamics, the first to study airflow, author of
Joukowsky transform and
Kutta–Joukowski theorem, founder of
TsAGI and pioneer of aviation
See also
*
List of physicists
*
List of Russian astronomers and astrophysicists
*
List of Russian mathematicians
*
List of Russian scientists
*
List of Russian inventors
*
Science and technology in Russia
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Russian Physicists
Russian
Physicists