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
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 ...
's largest
research center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
s specialized in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
and technology. The institute was established in 1918 in
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
(now St. Petersburg) and run for several decades by
Abram Ioffe. The institute is a 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 ...
.
Present structure of the institute
As of 2019, the Ioffe institute employed about 1500 people, around 1000 of whom were scientific researchers (including 560 with a PhD degree and 250 with a
Doktor Nauk
Doctor of Sciences ( rus, доктор наук, p=ˈdoktər nɐˈuk, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; uk, доктор наук; bg, доктор на науките; be, доктар навук) is a higher doctoral degree in the Russi ...
degree).
Most of the research staff members are top graduates of the St. Petersburg (former Leningrad) universities.
From 2013 until mid-May 2018 the Ioffe institute was under formal jurisdiction of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO Russia), now it is under jurisdiction of the established in May 2018
Ministry of Science and Higher Education
{{Unreferenced, date=March 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
A Ministry of Higher Education is a government department that focuses on the provision or regulation of institutions of higher education. In some countries these exist as ministries compounde ...
, like all other institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
The institute is organized into five divisions:
* Center for Nano-Heterostructure Physics
* Solid State Electronics
*
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 ...
*
, Atomic Physics and
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
* Physics of
Dielectrics and
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
s
Each of the divisions includes several laboratories. The institute has its own graduate school and a scientific council. There exists an intensive collaboration with the research and industrial establishments in Russia and worldwide.
The institute publishes five scientific journals: ''Semiconductors'' (russian: Физика и техника полупроводников), ''Physics of the Solid State'' (russian: Физика твёрдого тела), ''Optics and Spectroscopy'' (russian: Оптика и спектроскопия), and ''Technical Physics'' (journal + letters) (russian: Журнал технической физики (основной + письма)).
Founding of the institute
The foundation date of the Ioffe Institute is September 23, 1918 – the day of signing the decree on the establishment of the physical and technical department in the (established in March of the same year) State Roentgenological and Radiological Institute in
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. Despite tremendous economic problems after the World War I and the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
(1917), the development of science was one of the priorities of the new Communist government.
The abovementioned department was headed by
A. F. Ioffe. In 1922, on its basis, the State Physicotechnical Radiology Institute has emerged. After several reorganizations and renaming, since 1933, the institute became “Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute”. The form “Physicotechnical” is a Russian variant for “Physical & Technical”. Three decades later, in the 1960s, the word “Ioffe” was added to the institute name, in honor of the first director.
Since 1939, the institute has been a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1991 – of the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1967, it was awarded the
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...
. These details were reflected in the institute name, especially in Russian. Also now, for historical reasons, there remained the entrance plaque (s. photo): “Academy of Sciences of the USSR, A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, awarded the Order of Lenin” (russian: Oрдена Ленина Физико-технический институт им. А. Ф. Иоффе АН СССР).
Presently, in English texts, for example in scientific papers, the name “
. F.Ioffe
hysical-TechnicalInstitute
f the Russian Academy of Sciences
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
is used (the optional fragments are enclosed in square brackets).
Main scientific achievements
The Ioffe Institute is considered the cradle of Soviet physics. Such outstanding scientists as
L. D. Landau,
P. L. Kapitsa started their career here, many physicists — among them
Y. B. Zeldovich,
I. V. Kurchatov,
I. E. Tamm — have worked at the institute for some time.
The research of the institute covers nearly all fields of the contemporary physics, including the solid-state, semiconductors, quantum electronics, astrophysics, plasma, fluid dynamics, cosmology, nuclear synthesis.
More than 100 employees of the institute were recognized by awarding the highest prizes and orders of the Soviet Union and of Russia – in particular the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, State Prizes of Russia, Government prizes and special prizes of the Soviet/Russian Academy of Sciences.
Twice, the Nobel Prize was awarded for the works performed at the Ioffe Institute. In 1956, academician
N. N. Semyonov (together with
C. N. Hinshelwood) got the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, 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 "M ...
for a discovery and study of
chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events.
Chain reactions are one way that syst ...
s: the works were made and published in 1927, when N. N. Semyonov was a staff member of the institute. In 2000,
Zh. I. Alferov, director of the Ioffe Institute at that time, became a
Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (together with
H. Kroemer and
J. Kilby) for the development of semiconductor heterostructures for high-speed optoelectronics.
The Ioffe Institute has played a central role in the development of photovoltaic solar power in Russia and internationally, and thus in the development of renewable energy.
Buildings
The main building of the Ioffe Institute (s. photo at the top of the article and the very left part of the photo below) is located at Polytechnicheskaya Street, 26. It was built in a
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
style in 1912–1916 by the architect G. D. Grimm and served as "a refuge for the elderly needy hereditary noblemen in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs' house" at the forty-prized ones, on the second floor they arranged Church (now the Small Assembly Hall of the institute).
![KurchatovStr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/KurchatovStr.jpg)
In 1920 the building was adapted to the institute by the design of civil engineers P. I. Sidorov and Yu. V. Bilinsky. The ceremonial transfer of the building to the institute took place on February 4, 1923. Until 1953, the apartment of A. F. Ioffe was located in the same building.
[Алфёров Ж. И. Папа Иоффе и его «детский сад» (Лекция из цикла «Наука и культура XXI века», АФТУ, 10 октября 2008 года) // Наука и культура: избранные лекции / Сост. Ю. В. Трушин. — СПб: БАН, 2009. — С. 127—167. — 208 с. — ] In the years 1927–1928 there appeared a yard part, and in 1970 the building was reconstructed and expanded along Kurchatov Street.
Beyond this historical building, a more modern building on another side of the Kurchatov Street (the right part of the photo) also belongs to the Ioffe Institute. It was constructed in the 1970s. Furthermore, some laboratories of the Ioffe Institute are placed in Shuvalovo, a north-west outskirts of St. Petersburg.
In front of the main facade are the busts of
Abram Ioffe (sculptor G. D. Glickman, 1964) and
Boris Konstantinov (sculptor
Mikhail Anikushin
Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin (russian: Михаил Константинович Аникушин; (19 September 1917, Moscow – 18 May 1997, Saint Petersburg) was a famous Soviet and Russian sculptor. Among his most famous works are a m ...
, 1975). On either side of the main entrance are memorial plaques: to the left of the entrance are S. N. Zhurkov,
Yulii Borisovich Khariton
Yulii Borisovich Khariton (Russian language, 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 prog ...
,
Anatoly Alexandrov,
Yakov Frenkel
__NOTOC__
Yakov Il'ich Frenkel (russian: Яков Ильич Френкель; 10 February 1894 – 23 January 1952) was a Soviet physicist renowned for his works in the field of condensed matter physics. He is also known as Jacov Frenkel, frequ ...
, and ; right of the entrance -
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasil'evich Kurchatov (russian: Игорь Васильевич Курчатов; 12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapo ...
, B. P. Konstantinov,
Nikolay Semyonov
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (or Semënov), (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Семёнов; – 25 September 1986) (often referred to in English as Semenoff, Semenov, Semionov, or Semyonova) was a Soviet physicist and chem ...
.
Directors of the institute
Before 1950 –
Abram Ioffe
* 1950-1957 – A. P. Komar
* 1957-1967 –
Boris Konstantinov
* 1967-1987 – Vladimir M. Tuchkevich
* 1987-2003 –
Zhores Alferov
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (russian: link=no, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, ; be, Жарэс Іва́навіч Алфёраў; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed signific ...
* 2003-2017 – A. G. Zabrodskii
* January–September, 2018 – Sergei V. Lebedev (acting)
* Since October, 2018 –
Sergei V. Ivanov (bis July 2019 acting, since August 2019 official)
Notable people associated with the institute
*
Hasan Abdullayev
*
Anatoly Alexandrov
*
Zhores Alferov
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (russian: link=no, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, ; be, Жарэс Іва́навіч Алфёраў; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed signific ...
![Nobel prize medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Nobel_prize_medal.svg)
*
Artem Alikhanian
Artyom Isaakovich Alikhanian ( hy, Արտեմ Ալիխանյան, russian: Артём Исаакович Алиханьян, 24 June 1908 – 25 February 1978) was a Soviet and Armenian physicist, one of the founders and first director of the Yer ...
*
Abraham Alikhanov
*
Arkady Aronov
Arkady Girshevich Aronov (russian: Аркадий Гиршевич Аронов; July 26, 1939 in Leningrad, Soviet Union – November 13, 1994 in Rehovot, Israel) was a Russian and Israeli theoretical condensed matter physicist, notable for his a ...
*
Lev Artsimovich
Lev Andreyevich Artsimovich (Russian: Лев Андреевич Арцимович, February 25, 1909 – March 1, 1973), also transliterated Arzimowitsch, was a Soviet physicist who is regarded as the one of the founder of Tokamak— a device t ...
*
Matvei Bronstein
*
Victor Bursian
*
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 grea ...
*
Edward Drobyshevski
*
Vladimir G. Dubrovskii
*
Alexei L. Efros
Alexei Lvovich Efros (russian: Алексей Львович Эфрос) is an American theoretical physicist who specializes in condensed matter physics. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at University of Utah.
Biography
Efros was born ...
*
Oleg Firsov
*
Georgy Flyorov
Georgii Nikolayevich Flyorov (also spelled Flerov, rus, Гео́ргий Никола́евич Флёров, p=gʲɪˈorgʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ˈflʲɵrəf; 2 March 1913 – 19 November 1990) was a Soviet physicist who is known for h ...
*
Yakov Frenkel
__NOTOC__
Yakov Il'ich Frenkel (russian: Яков Ильич Френкель; 10 February 1894 – 23 January 1952) was a Soviet physicist renowned for his works in the field of condensed matter physics. He is also known as Jacov Frenkel, frequ ...
*
Andrei Fursenko
Andrei Aleksandrovich Fursenko (russian: Андрей Александрович Фурсенко; ; born 17 July 1949 in Leningrad) is a Russian politician, scientist and businessman. He was the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian ...
*
George Gamow
George Gamow (March 4, 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov ( uk, Георгій Антонович Гамов, russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов), was a Russian-born Soviet and American polymath, theoret ...
*
Igor Grekhov
Igor Vsevolodovich Grekhov (russian: Игорь Всеволодович Грехов, born 10 September 1934 in Smolensk) is a Soviet and Russian physicist and electrical engineer, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is known as ...
*
Vladimir Gribov
Vladimir Naumovich Gribov (Russian Влади́мир Нау́мович Гри́бов; March 25, 1930, LeningradAugust 13, 1997, Budapest) was a prominent Russian theoretical physicist, who worked on high-energy physics, quantum field theory an ...
*
Evgeni Gross Evgenii Fedorovich Gross (1897 – 1972) was a Soviet physicist working in optics and spectroscopy of condensed matter.
He graduated from Leningrad University in 1924. He became a correspondent member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1946.
...
*
Abram Ioffe
*
Pyotr Kapitsa
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa or Peter Kapitza ( Russian: Пётр Леонидович Капица, Romanian: Petre Capița ( – 8 April 1984) was a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, best known for his work in low-temperature physics ...
![Nobel prize medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Nobel_prize_medal.svg)
*
Yulii 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 wea ...
*
Boris Konstantinov
*
Yury Kovalchuk
Yury Valentinovich Kovalchuk (russian: Ю́рий Валенти́нович Ковальчу́к; born 25 July 1951) is a Russian billionaire businessman and financier who is "reputed to be Vladimir Putin's personal banker". The Panama Papers l ...
*
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasil'evich Kurchatov (russian: Игорь Васильевич Курчатов; 12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapo ...
*
Georgii Kurdyumov
*
Lev Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau (russian: Лев Дави́дович Ланда́у; 22 January 1908 – 1 April 1968) was a Soviet- Azerbaijani physicist of Jewish descent who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.
His a ...
![Nobel prize medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Nobel_prize_medal.svg)
*
Vladimir Lobashev
Vladimir Mikhailovich Lobashev (July 29, 1934 – August 3, 2011) was a Russian physicist and expert in nuclear physics and particle physics. He authored over 200 papers, of which 25 were considered groundbreaking.
Early life and education
Lobash ...
*
Nikolay Semyonov
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (or Semënov), (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Семёнов; – 25 September 1986) (often referred to in English as Semenoff, Semenov, Semionov, or Semyonova) was a Soviet physicist and chem ...
![Nobel prize medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Nobel_prize_medal.svg)
*
Lev Shubnikov
*
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), Hero ...
*
Yuri Trushin
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ioffe Institute
Physics institutes
Research institutes in Saint Petersburg
Research institutes in the Soviet Union
1918 establishments in Russia
Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Nuclear research institutes in Russia
Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union
Cultural heritage monuments in Saint Petersburg