Nobel Prize in Physics Recipient. Dr. Alexander Prokhorov received world-wide recognition as an Australia-born scientist, who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov, a Russian scientist and research colleague and Charles Townes, an American scientist, who worked independently from the Russian scientists. He received the award "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." Their discovery was an essential part in making the microwave, corrective laser eye surgery, computer printer, the scanning of bar codes used by the cashier at the grocery store along with other everyday uses and more complex uses. During the 1950s, they contributed to putting stimulated emission into practical use in masers and lasers, which produce concentrated and coherent beams of microwaves and light, respectively. "Stimulated emission means that a light packet, a photon, coming in contact with an atom can cause an electron to descend to a lower energy level so that an additional photon with the same amount of energy is emitted. If electrons are elevated to higher energy levels with the help of heat or light, an avalanche-like effect occurs when they fall to lower levels." Their results were first presented at a national conference in 1952, but not published until a few years later. Born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, his family escaped to Australia from the hardships of the Russian Czar's government in the early twentieth century, yet his family decided to leave Australia to return to Communist Russia in 1923. Starting his earliest education in Australia, he continued in Russia and entered in 1934 St. Petersburg State University studying physics, graduating with honors in 1939. After relocating to Moscow, he held a position at the Lebedev Physical Institute, in the oscillations laboratory. With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Red Army in June of 1941, fought in the infantry, was wounded twice in action, and received three medals including the Medal for Courage in 1946. Leaving the military, he returned to his position at Lebedev Physical Institute in 1944 and earned his Doctorate Degree in 1946. He was able to do much research at Lebedev Physical Institute, and by 1955 he began research in the field of electron paramagnetic resonanc. In 1959 he became a professor at Moscow State University. Besides the Nobel Prize, he received the Lenin Prize in 1960 with Dr. Basov and the Order of Lenin five times in his professional career. He became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1966. In 1968 he became vice-director of Lebedev Institute and in 1971 he became the director of the laboratory at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a member of the Communist Party, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor, the highest Soviet Union award for economy and culture. He was the editor of the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia." From the Optical Society of America, he was awarded the Frederic Ives Medal in 2000. In 2001 he received the Demidov Prize, a Russian award given awarded to outstanding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was a principal founder of the "Laser Physics Journal" in 1990.