Nikolay Basov

Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (; 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the development of laser and maser, Basov shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Alexander Prokhorov and Charles Hard Townes.

Early life and education Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov was born on 14 December 1922 in Usman, Russia, the son of Gennady Fedorovich Basov and Zinaida Andreevna Molchanova. Basov finished high school in 1941 in Voronezh, and was later called for military service at the Kuibyshev Military Medical Academy. In 1943, he left the academy and served in the Red Army participating in the Second World War with the 1st Ukrainian Front.

In 1945, Basov entered the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI). In 1950, he began his postgraduate studies at the MEPhI, although he worked on his Candidate of Sciences thesis at the Lebedev Physical Institute (LPI)—under the supervision of Mikhail Leontovich and Alexander Prokhorov—receiving his degree in 1953. Basov defended his Doctor of Sciences thesis, A Molecular Oscillator, in 1956. He was Honorary President and Member of the International Academy of Science, Munich. He was the head of the laboratory of quantum radiophysics at the LPI until his death in 2001. and realized experimentally the thin disk active mirror semiconductor lasers. He developed with colleaguaes the first nonlinear theory of coherent addition of laser sets. N.G.Basov encouraged the researchers in nonlinear optics in Lebedev Institute who discovered the optical phase conjugation.

Together with Lebedev Institute researchers he realized the robust method of the phase-locking of laser arrays via optical phase conjugation in Stimulated Brillouin scattering.

Basov's contributions to the development of the laser and maser, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1964, also led to new missile defense initiatives.

Basov died on 1 July 2001 in Moscow at the age of 78, and was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.

Politics He entered politics in 1951 and became a member of parliament (the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet) in 1974. Following U.S. President Ronald Reagan's speech on SDI in 1983, Basov signed a letter along with other Soviet scientists condemning the initiative, which was published in the New York Times. In 1985 he declared the Soviet Union was capable of matching SDI proposals made by the U.S. 1986 UNESCO Kalinga Prize "For his work to interpret science and technology to the public, notably through his many publications aimed at informing the public on science." 1989 Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union Lomonosov Gold Medal "For outstanding achievements in the field of physics." 1991 American Nuclear Society Edward Teller Award

Books N. G. Basov, K. A. Brueckner (Editor-in-Chief), S. W. Haan, C. Yamanaka. Inertial Confinement Fusion, 1992, Research Trends in Physics Series published by the American Institute of Physics Press (presently Springer, New York). . V. Stefan and N. G. Basov (Editors). Semiconductor Science and Technology, Volume 1. Semiconductor Lasers. (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) (Paperback), 1999. . V. Stefan and N. G. Basov (Editors). Semiconductor Science and Technology, Volume 2: Quantum Dots and Quantum Wells. (Stefan University Press Series on Frontiers in Science and Technology) (Paperback), 1999. .