The Lebedev Physical Institute 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 ...

(LPI RAS or just LPI) (in russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated 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 ...

, is one of the leading Russian research institutes specializing 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 ...

. It is also one of the oldest research institutions in Russia: its history dates back to a collection of physics equipment established by

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

in the Kunstkamera of

Saint Petersburg 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 ...

in 1714. The institute was established in its present shape in 1934 by academician

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 ...

. It moved to Moscow and was named after a prominent Russian physicist

Pyotr Lebedev Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev (; 24 February 1866 – 1 March 1912) was a Russian physicist. His name was also transliterated as Peter Lebedew and Peter Lebedev. Lebedev was a creator of first scientific school in Russia. Career Lebedev made his doc ...

the same year. It is also known as P. N. Lebedev Institute of Physics or just Lebedev Institute. In Russian it is often referred to by the acronym FIAN (ФИАН) standing for "Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences". The wide range of the research activities includes: laser technology, dark matter structure, nanostructures, superconductivity, cosmic rays, and gamma-astronomy. The institute developed a technique of crystallizing cubic zirconia (which was called '' Fianit'' in Russia, named after FIAN).

Directors of the Institute

(1934–1951) #

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), He ...

(1951–1972) # Nikolay Basov (1973–1988) #

Leonid Keldysh Leonid Veniaminovich Keldysh (; 7 April 1931 – 11 November 2016) was a Soviet and Russian physicist. Keldysh was a professor in the I.E. Tamm Theory division of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and a ...

(1988–1994) # Oleg Krokhin (1994–2004) #

Gennady Mesyats Gennady Andreyevich Mesyats (russian: Месяц, Геннадий Андреевич, February 29, 1936, Kemerovo, Russia) is a Russian physicist, founder of several scientific schools — high-current electronics and pulse electrophysics, ...

(2004–2015) # (2015–)

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." Alfr ...
s awarded to FIAN scientists

* 1958 — Pavel Cherenkov, Igor Tamm,

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 the ...

: "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov-Vavilov effect". * 1964 — Nikolay Basov,

Alexander Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...

: "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the

maser A maser (, an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes, James ...

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 ...

principle". * 1975 —

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

won a

Peace Prize This list of peace prizes is an index to articles on notable prizes awarded for contributions towards achieving or maintaining peace. The list is organized by region and country of the sponsoring organization, but many of the prizes are open to pe ...

for his campaigning for human rights. * 2003 —

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 wit ...

: "for pioneering contributions to the theory 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 ...

and superfluids".

Facilities

The institute has, among other research facilities, a particle accelerator: 1.2 GeV electron synchrotron called "Pakhra", located in Troitsk near Moscow (at the LPI's HEP department). However, the institute is not totally (or even perhaps mainly) focused on accelerator/particle physics, but the scope of the research of the institute contains most of the areas of modern physics.

Publications of the Institute

* "Краткие сообщения по физике" ; English version: '' Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute'' *"Квантовая электроника" ; English translation: ''

Quantum Electronics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have ...

'' (formerly ''Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics'')

Films about the Lebedev Physical Institute

In 2021 it was released a documentary “Mishik Kazaryan: The Path of an Explorer” (2021) ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWuZsXSCFxo ). The film (original title «Мишик Казарян: путь Искателя») was directed by Leonid Ioffe. It narrates about the life and work of Professor Mishik Kazaryan, an experimental physicist, laureate of the USSR State Prize, who worked in the Lebedev Physical Institute. The film also allows to immerse into the life of the Lebedev Physical Institute since middle of 1960-s.

External links

Lebedev Physics Institute official web site
{{authority control Physics institutes Universities and institutes established in the Soviet Union Research institutes in the Soviet Union Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nuclear research institutes in Russia 1714 establishments in Russia Cultural heritage monuments in Moscow