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V.A.Fock Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics is the structural unit of the St. Petersburg State University.
It has appeared at the University in 1901 on the base of new building constructed for
student physical laboratory. The Institute was inaugurated on September 9, 1901, that
was the index1 building especially constructed for physicists in Russia. Initially,
Professor F.F.Petrushevsky has been at the head of the Institute. Main enthusiast and
the second director of new institute was Professor of Physics I.I.Borgman (March 1902-1914).
He was also one of the index1 editors of the physics part of the "Journal of Russian Physical
and Chemical Society" established at the St. Petersburg University in 1872. Since 1931 this
journal is published in Moscow by the Academy of Sciences of USSR; it is known now to any
physicist under the title "The Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics" - JETP.
Since 1915 the Institute was directed by Professor (later - Academician) D.S.Rozhdestvensky who
was well known due to his outstanding works in atomic spectroscopy, especially in experiments on
anomaly dispersion. He made a great contribution to organize the high-class research work at the
Institute. Among the directors of the Institute there were well-known physicists Professors
V.R.Bursian, P.I.Lukirsky, S.E.Frish, E.F.Gross, V.A.Fock, V.M.Chulanovsky, S.F.Rodionov,
N.P.Penkin, P.N.Zanadvorov, G.V.Molochnov, V.A.Fomichov. The names of such famous scientists as
the Nobel Prize Winners N.N.Semenov (1956), L.D.Landau (1962), A.M.Prokhorov (1964),
Professors V.A.Fock, A.A.Friedmann, V.R.Bursian, V.K.Freederickcz, G.A.Krutkow, P.I.Lukirsky,
V.M.Chulanovsky, D.V.Skobeltsin, Ya.I.Frenkel, E.F.Gross, S.E.Frish, A.N.Terenin, G.A.(George)
Gamov, V.N.Tsvetkov, V.A.Ambartsumyan, K.Ya.Kondrat'ev, L.D. Faddeev, S.P.Merkur'ev et al,
are connected with the Physics Faculty and the Institute of Physics.
In 1932 the Physics Institute was formally approved as the Research Institute of Physics of Leningrad State University by the decree of the People's Commissar Council of Soviet Union. In 1971-1975 the Institute and the Physics Faculty were moved to new campus in Stary (Old) Peterhof, which is situated in 35 km on the southwest from St. Petersburg. In 1995 independent Institute of Radiophysics was organized on the base of the Institute of Physics. In 1999, when world physical community celebrated centenary of the outstanding theoretician, Academician Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock (1898-1998), the Institute got its present official name: V.A.Fock Institute of Physics.
The Institute of Physics is tightly related with the Physics Faculty forming a unified complex for education and research. Approx. 1,000 students have their practice and carry out their research work in the departments and laboratories of the Institute.
Nowadays, the Institute of Physics includes fifteen Research Departments and two independent Research Laboratories:
| Atmospheric Physics | Solid State Physics |
| Optics and Spectroscopy | Theoretical Physics |
| Nuclear Physics | Photonics |
| Molecular Spectroscopy | Molecular Optics and Biophysics |
| Solid State Electronics | Terrestrial Physics |
| Chemical Physics | Quantum Magnetism |
| Polymer Physics | Quantum Electronics |
| Mathematical & Computational Physics | |
| Dynamics of Elastic Media | Theory of Complex Systems |
| (laboratory) | (laboratory) |
The main fields of the Institute's research activity includes:
(a) Theoretical study of physical properties of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, liquids, and solids. Mathematical methods of quantum physics and classic theory of wave propagation;
(b) Complex study of electronic and molecular phenomena in solids and on inter-phase boundaries;
(c) Linear and nonlinear physical optics, holography and physics of lasers. Study of physical properties of substance and interaction processes in gases, liquids and plasma (including active media of optical quantum generators and planet's atmosphere);
(d) Study of atomic nucleus structure and the mechanism of nuclear interactions;
(e) Study of molecular structure and physical properties of polymers and disperse systems. Investigation of liquid crystals, phase transitions and intermolecular interactions in condensed media;
(f) Study of physical fields of the Earth on land, in ocean and in atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, hydrosphere, etc.
Research in the natural sciences is, by tradition, very international. This is also the case with the Institute of Physics. To conduct their accelerator experiments, our physicists travel to CERN (Switzerland) and to DESY (Germany). The Institute has long-time and productive collaboration with the Universities and Research Institutes in Germany and USA, Sweden and Finland, Spain and The Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy, Great Britain and France, Poland and Czech Republic, Canada and Japan, Republic of Korea and China, and so on, and so on. And - naturally - visiting researchers and graduate students come to Old Peterhof from all corners of the earth, attracted by the experts and the facilities that have achieved international prominence.
Institute of Physics in Numbers
Staff (January, 2001)
(A) Total: 295
| (a) D.Sc: | 47 | (b) Ph.D.: | 138 |
| (c) Researchers: | 211 | (d) Technicians: | 55 |
(B) Teachers of the Physics Faculty (half-positions in the Institute) : 252
(C) Special Centre for Physical Education : 142
Post-graduates (June 2001) : 194
D.Sc. students (June 2001) : 54
Dr.Sc. Theses (in 2000) : 8
Ph.D. Theses (in 2000) : 30
Publications (in 2000) ; Papers - 574,
Books/monographs - 5
Patents (in 2000) : 2
Organization of conferences (2000) : 10
Structure of the Institute's financing in 2000
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