Russian Physicist, Nobel Laureate Zhores Alferov Dies At 88

Russian scientist Zhores Alferov, who won the 2000 Nobel prize in physics, has died at the age of 88 in St Petersburg, the Russian Communist party has announced.

Alferov was the first Russian to become a Nobel laureate since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev won the peace prize in 1990 following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Alferov’s Nobel award recognised his research in information technology in the 1970s and much of his work led to technology advancements in computers, CD players and mobile telephones.

He contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics including inventing the heterotransistor – an interface that occurs between two layers or of dissimilar crystalline semiconductors.

The $1 million (€878 thousand) Nobel prize money was split with two US scientists, Herbert Kroemer and Jack Kilby.

At the time of the prize, he was director of the A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St Petersburg but later became chairman of the Russian Academy of Science’s nanotechnology committee.