Physicist. Sergey Vavilov, a Soviet physicist, was the co-discoverer the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect, a discovery for which one of his doctorate students, Pavel Cherenkov, along with Igor Tamm, and Ilya M. Frank, were awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics. Vavilov received two nominations for a Nobel Prize but did not receive one. The award is given to the living, and he died seven years before the 1958 Nobel Prizes. He was the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences from July of 1945 until his death. Known by his research in luminescence, he founded the Soviet School of Physical Optics. Born the son of a textile merchant, he and his brother both decided to become scientists instead of following in their father's business. Preparing for a business career, he graduated from Moscow School of Commerce in 1909. And the same year, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, and by the end of the first year he left to do research at the laboratory in Lebedev Physical Institute. In 1911 following his instructor, he transferred to Shanyansky City University. By 1913, he had published his first scientific paper, and graduated from Moscow University with honors in 1914. During World War I, he served in the Russian army and was sent to the western frontlines, captured by the Nazi forces for a short time, before returning to Russia. Upon reaching Moscow, he learned his parents had lost everything from the widespread famine and economic collapse, thus they left Russia. After having the opportunity during the war to work with radios, he published another paper on radios in 1919. Following a couple of assistant positions, in 1920 he became professor and head of the department of general physics at Moscow University, and from 1930 all of his research was done there. During World War II, he worked on problems connected with national defense, while the State Optical Institute was evacuated. The Kasha–Vavilov rule of luminescence quantum yields is also named for him. He was a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1932, Head of the Lebedev Institute of Physics since 1934, a chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a member of the Supreme Soviet from 1946 and a recipient of four Stalin Prizes. He along with Frank, Tamm, and Cherenkov were awarded State Prizes in 1946 for the Vavilov-Cherenkov Effect. A meteorological station, as well as a glacier and an ice cap, in October Revolution Island, in the Severnaya Zemlya group have been named after Vavilov. A minor planet 2862 Vavilov, which was discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, is named after him and his brother Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. The crater Vavilov on the far side of the Moon is also named after him and his brother. In 1961 the Russian postage service issued his image on the stamp. His 1950 textbook "The microstructure of Light" is widely known as a classical study of light quanta. He translated from English to Russian Sir Isaac Newton's "Optiks" and his "Lectures on Optics," a work on Galileo's "Pace in the History of Optics," and a popular biography of Newton. In 1951 the Academy of Sciences of the USSR established the Gold Medal named after S.I. Vavilov. His elder brother Nikolai Vavilov, a geneticist, was heralded as one of the greatest contributors to the study of botanical populations. His brother died in a Russian concentration camp during World War II after falling out of favor with the Soviet government.