Vitaui Lazarevich Ginzburg

Born Sept. 21(Oct. 4), 1916, in Moscow. Soviet physicist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966; corresponding member, 1953). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Ginzburg graduated from Moscow University in 1938. Since 1940 he has been working at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and since 1945 he has also been a professor at the University of Gorky. His primary works have been on the theory of wave propagation in the ionosphere, radio astronomy, problems in the origin of cosmic rays, the thermodynamic theory of ferroelectric phenomena, the theory of superconductivity, optics, the theory of radiation, and astrophysics. In 1940 Ginzburg worked out the quantum theory of the Cherenkov-Vavilov effect and the theory of Cherenkov radiation in crystals. With L. D. Landau, he formulated a phenomenological theory of superconductivity. In 1950 and 1951 he worked on problems in thermonuclear reactions. Since 1958 he has been researching problems in the theory of excitons and in crystallooptics. He worked out the theory of magnetic-braking cosmic radio-frequency radiation and a radio astronomy theory on the origin of cosmic rays. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1953 and of the Lenin Prize in 1966, he has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.