Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov (russian: Алексе́й Алексе́евич Абрико́сов; June 25, 1928 – March 29, 2017) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n and AmericanAlexei A. Abrikosov
Autobiography
Nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize, 2003

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

whose main contributions are in the field of

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...

. He was the co-recipient of the 2003

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

, with

Vitaly Ginzburg Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, ForMemRS (russian: Вита́лий Ла́заревич Ги́нзбург, link=no; 4 October 1916 – 8 November 2009) was a Russian physicist who was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003, together with ...

and

Anthony James Leggett Sir Anthony James Leggett (born 26 March 1938) is a British-American theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Leggett is widely recognised as a world leader in the theory of low-temperatur ...

, for theories about how matter can behave at extremely low temperatures.

Education and early life

Abrikosov was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, Soviet Union, on June 25, 1928, to a couple of

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

Aleksey Abrikosov Aleksey Ivanovich Abrikosov (russian: Алексе́й Ива́нович Абрико́сов; – 9 April 1955) was a Russian/Soviet pathologist and a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (since 1939) and the Soviet Academy of Medical Scie ...

and Fani Abrikosova, née Wulf. He graduated from

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1948. From 1948 to 1965, he worked at the Institute for Physical Problems of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 1951 for the theory of thermal diffusion in plasmas, and then his Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (a "higher doctorate") degree in 1955 for a thesis on

quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and spec ...

at high energies. Abrikosov moved to the US in 1991, and lived there until his death in 2017, in Palo Alto, California. While in the US, Abrikosov was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, and in 2001, to be a foreign member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Career

From 1965 to 1988, he worked at the

Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics The L. D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (russian: link=no, Институт теоретической физики имени Л. Д. Ландау (ИТФ)) of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a research institution, located in the s ...

(USSR Academy of Sciences). He has been a professor at Moscow State University since 1965. In addition, he held tenure at 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 research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It prepares speciali ...

from 1972 to 1976, and at the

Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys The National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) (russian: Национальный исследовательский технологический университет МИСиС) is a public technological university in the field ...

from 1976 to 1991. He served as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1987 to 1991. In 1991, he became a full member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. In two works in 1952 and 1957, Abrikosov explained how

magnetic flux In physics, specifically electromagnetism, the magnetic flux through a surface is the surface integral of the normal component of the magnetic field B over that surface. It is usually denoted or . The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber ( ...

can penetrate a class of

superconductors Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

. This class of materials are called

type-II superconductors In superconductivity, a type-II superconductor is a superconductor that exhibits an intermediate phase of mixed ordinary and superconducting properties at intermediate temperature and fields above the superconducting phases. It also features the ...

. The accompanying arrangement of magnetic flux lines is called the

Abrikosov vortex In superconductivity, fluxon (also called a Abrikosov vortex and quantum vortex) is a vortex of supercurrent in a type-II superconductor, used by Alexei Abrikosov to explain magnetic behavior of type-II superconductors. Abrikosov vortices occur ...

lattice. Together with

Lev Gor'kov Lev Petrovich Gor'kov (russian: Лев Петро́вич Горько́в; 14 June 1929 – 28 December 2016) was a Russian-American research physicist internationally known for his pioneering work in the field of superconductivity. He was particul ...

and

Igor Dzyaloshinskii Igor Ekhielevich Dzyaloshinskii, (Игорь Ехиельевич Дзялошинский, surname sometimes transliterated as Dzyaloshinsky, Dzyaloshinski, Dzyaloshinskiĭ, or Dzyaloshinkiy, 1 February 1931, Moscow – 14 July 2021) was a Russia ...

, Abrikosov has written an iconic book on theoretical

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...

, which has been used to train physicists in the field for decades. From 1991 until his retirement, he worked at

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...

in the U.S. state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Abrikosov was an Argonne Distinguished Scientist at the Condensed Matter Theory Group in Argonne's Materials Science Division. When he received the Nobel Prize, his research was focused on the origins of magnetoresistance, a property of some materials that change their resistance to electrical flow under the influence of a magnetic field.

Honours and awards

Abrikosov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1966, the

Fritz London Fritz Wolfgang London (March 7, 1900 – March 30, 1954) was a German physicist and professor at Duke University. His fundamental contributions to the theories of chemical bonding and of intermolecular forces (London dispersion forces) are today c ...

Memorial Prize in 1972, and the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

in 1982. In 1989 he received the Landau Prize from the Academy of Sciences, Russia. Two years later, in 1991, Abrikosov was awarded the Sony Corporation's John Bardeen Award. The same year he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. He shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was also a member of the Royal Academy of London, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and in 2000 was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. Other awards include: * Member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(now Russian Academy of Sciences), 1964 *

Honorary Doctor An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

of the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

, 1975 *

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...

, 1975 *

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

, 1988 * Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now Russian Academy of Sciences), 1987 * Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2001 * Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

, 2004 * Gold Medal of Vernadsky from

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...

, 2015

Personal life

Abrikosov was the son of the physicians Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov (1875-1955) and his second wife, Fania Davidovna Woolf (1895—1965). Through his father, Abrikosov was the nephew of the martyred Catholic nun Anna Abrikosova (1882-1936). His sister was Maria Alekseevna Abrikósova (1929-1998), physician. He married Svetlana Yuriyevna Bunkova and had 3 children. He died in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on 29 March 2017 at the age of 88.

Books

* *

References

External links

* * * including the Nobel Lecture on December 8, 2003 ''Type II Superconductors and the Vortex Lattice''
M. R. Norman, "Aleksei A. Abrikosov", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrikosov, Alexei Alexeyevich 1928 births 2017 deaths Nobel laureates in Physics American Nobel laureates Russian Nobel laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Russian Jews Jewish American physicists Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow State University alumni Moscow State University faculty Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology faculty Lenin Prize winners Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the USSR State Prize Jewish Russian physicists Soviet physicists Superconductivity Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Theoretical physicists Soviet Jews