Lebedev Physical Institute

The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS) (in Russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated in Moscow, is one of the leading Russian research institutes specializing in physics. 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 in the Kunstkamera of Saint Petersburg in 1714. The institute was established in its present shape in 1934 by academician Sergey Vavilov. It moved to Moscow and was named after a prominent Russian physicist Pyotr Lebedev the same year. It is also known as 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

Sergey Vavilov (1934–1951)
Dmitri Skobeltsyn (1951–1972)
Nikolay Basov (1973–1988)
Leonid Keldysh (1988–1994)
Oleg Krokhin (1994–2004)
Gennady Mesyats (2004–2015)
Nikolai Kolachevsky (2015–)

Nobel prizes awarded to FIAN scientists
Nobel laureates who worked at the LPI: Cherenkov, Tamm, Frank, Basov, Prokhorov, Sakharov, Ginsburg.

1958 — Pavel Cherenkov, Igor Tamm, Ilya Frank: "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov-Vavilov effect".
1964 — Nikolay Basov, Alexander Prokhorov: "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle".
1975 — Andrei Sakharov won a Peace Prize for his campaigning for human rights.
2003 — Vitaly Ginzburg: "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids".

Publications of the Institute

"Краткие сообщения по физике" (in Russian); English version: Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute
"Квантовая электроника" (in Russian); English translation: Russian Journal of Quantum Electronics (formerly Soviet Journal of Quantum Electronics)