The Nobel Prize in Physics, Academician Zhores Alferov, died on 2 March in St. Petersburg at the age of 88. Together with American scientists Jack Kilby and Herbert Kremer, Alferov received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for developing semiconductor heterostructures and creating fast opto- and microelectronic components. He was Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) from 1991 to 2017.He also was an incorrigible idealist; he believed in the triumph of the Good and sincerely worried about the fact that the world is full of injustice. Zhores Ivanovich was a strikingly solid man; he never lied or dissembled.
Even admitting mistakes and failures of the USSR, he always talked about the greatness of the era and the Soviet idea. He loved Russia with all his heart. He did not emigrate in the 90s because he believed in Russian science. He believed that we would overcome all the challenges and that Russia would raise the flag of domestic science high. Zhores Ivanovich did a lot to support young talented scientists. The scientific school created by him and his students will serve as a memory of him. Zhores Ivanovich made a huge contribution to domestic and world science.
I will never forget this strong and brave man. I am infinitely sorry that Zhores Alferov is no more. I express my deepest condolences in connection with the death of the outstanding Russian scientist, Nobel Prize winner Zhores Ivanovich Alferov. Meetings and conversations with this great man will forever remain in my memory, and his name will be written in the history of Russian and world science.
