Scientist

Alferov, Zhores I. (1930- ), Russian physicist who was cowinner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics. Alferov shared half of the Nobel Prize with American physicist Herbert Kroemer for their independent yet parallel improvements to semiconductors during the early 1960s. Their enhanced semiconductor design is widely used in microelectronics. The other half of the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to a scientist whose invention helped launched the ongoing revolution in information and communication technology: American electrical engineer and inventor Jack S. Kilby. In 1958 Kilby designed and constructed the first integrated circuit.

Alferov was born in 1930 in Vitebek, Belarus, in what was then part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After graduating in 1952 from the V. I. Ulyanov Electrotechnical Institute in Saint Petersburg (now known as the Saint Petersburg State Technical University), he joined the staff of the A. F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, also located in Saint Petersburg. Alferov earned his doctoral degree in physics and mathematics at the institute in 1970, and he became the institute’s director in 1987.

Einstein, Albert (1879-1955), German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate, best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity and for his bold hypothesis concerning the particle nature of light. He is perhaps the most well-known scientist of the 20th century.

Albert Einstein is considered one of the greatest and most popular scientists of all time. He is less famous for his social involvement, although he was a staunch supporter of both pacifism and Zionism. As a youth he showed a curiosity about nature and an ability to understand difficult concepts.

Einstein hated the dull regimentation and unimaginative spirit of school in Munich. When repeated business failure led the family to leave Germany for Milan, Italy, Einstein, who was then 15 years old, used the opportunity to withdraw from the school. He spent a year with his parents in Milan, and when it became clear that he would have to make his own way in the world, he finished secondary school in Aarau, Switzerland, and entered the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. Einstein did not enjoy the methods of instruction there. He often cut classes and used the time to study physics on his own or to play his beloved violin. He passed his examinations and graduated in 1900 by studying the notes of a classmate. His professors did not think highly of him and would not recommend him for a university position.
In 1902 he secured a position as an examiner in the Swiss patent office in Bern. In 1903 he married Mileva Maric, who had been his classmate at the polytechnic. They had two sons but eventually divorced. Einstein later remarried.

Van der Meer, Simon (1925- ), Dutch physicist and co-winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize for physics for his contributions to the discovery of several subatomic particles whose existence had been predicted but not confirmed. This discovery added further evidence to the theory proposed by Albert Einstein that all forces in nature are related and helped explain the nuclear reactions that occur in the sun. Van der Meer shared the Nobel Prize with his colleague Italian physicist Carlo Rubbia.

Born in The Hague, the Netherlands, Van der Meer obtained an engineering degree in 1952 from the Technische Hogeschool in Delft. After working for several years in the electronics industry, he joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, where he spent most of his career.

Curie, Marie (1867-1934), Polish-born French chemist who, with her husband Pierre Curie, was an early investigator of radioactivity. Radioactivity is the spontaneous decay of certain elements into other elements and energy. The Curies shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel for fundamental research on radioactivity. Marie Curie went on to study the chemistry and medical applications of radium. She was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in chemistry in recognition of her work in discovering radium and polonium and in isolating radium

Krebs, Edwin G. (1918- ), American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner, born in Lansing, Iowa. Krebs received an M.D. degree from the University of Washington in 1943. He continued to work for the university, and it was there that he began his 40-year collaboration with American biochemist Edmond H. Fischer, with whom he shared the 1992 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
In the 1950s Krebs and Fischer studied the way cells break down glycogen into the sugar glucose, which the cells use as fuel (the body stores energy in glycogen, and the cells break it down to glucose as needed). The two scientists knew that an enzyme, phosphorylase, was important to the process. Krebs had studied its role in muscle metabolism in mammals, and Fischer had studied the enzyme's role in plant metabolism.