A Glimpse back into the History

Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) is the oldest University in Russia. It was founded as the Emperor’s Moscow University under the decree of Empress Yelizaveta Petrovna on January 25, 1755. On the initiative of prominent chemist, MSU Professor, Academician N.D. Zelinsky in 1940 the University was awarded the name of its spiritual father M.V. Lomonosov.
At the beginning the University included three departments: Law, Medical and Philosophy. But yet at the very beginning of MSU a Chair of “Experimental and Pure Physics” was established. In 1770 it was reorganized, and a Chair of Mathematics and Physics appeared, from which later in 1791 a Chair of Experimental Physics was affiliated. Its head had become Professor Petr Ivanovich Strakhov (1757–1813) who played an important role for Physics progress at Moscow University. He was the first Dean of the Department of Physics and Math, a Correspondent Member of Saint-Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the author of the first manual on Physics published in Russian - “The Concise Description of Physics”. In May 1805, the University Board elected Prof. Strakhov Provost of Moscow State University.
After P.I.Strakhov had passed away the Chair of Physics was headed by Ivan Alexeevich Dvigubsky (1771–1839). Along with intensive scientific activity in the field of chemistry, physics, medicine and biology, Professor Dvigubsky had written a manual on physics, which was three times re-published, and he was also an editor of a scientific Journal at Moscow University. For 9 years he had been heading the Physics and Math Department and for seven years had been Provost at Moscow University.
The name of D.M. Perevoschikov (1988–1880), an academician of St-Petersburg Academy of Sciences, is connected with establishing the University Observatory. D.M. Perevoschikov had been Dean for 14 and Rector for two years.
Dean of Physics and Math Department Anton Antonovich Prokopovich had been Rector for seven years (1819–1826).
In January 1850 the Physics and Math Department was reorganized into Division of Physics and Math. Its first Dean had become botanist Alexander Grigoryevich Fisher von Waldheim, who had been heading the Division for nearly five years.
Among other Deans of the Division were those prominent figures like astronomer Fyodor Alexandrovich Bredihin and anthropologist Dmitry Nikolaevich Anuchin. All other Deans were bright, intelligent and extraordinary people having contributed a lot into development of Moscow University. The Deans - mathematician Leonid Kuzmich Lahtin and biologist Mikael Mikhailovich Novikov had also been Rector of the University.
A breakthrough in the life of Moscow University and the Division of Physics and Math had become Professor A.G. Stoletov’s research and teaching activity. He had done the pioneer work in the field of ferromagnetism and discovered the principles of outer photoelectric effect. Those results had brought him the world popularity and appreciation.
Professor Alexandr Grigoryevich Stoletov was the first to establish a school of thought of the world importance. By the end of the XX century his disciples had headed the chairs of Physics in five out of seven major universities in Russia.
The glory of Moscow University in the late XIX century was created by works of theory physicist N.A. Umov, who had worked out the fundamentals of the theory of localization and energy motion in continuous medium, had introduced the concept of energy flux (the Umov-Pointing’s vector).
In 1900 Dr. Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev got the position of Professor at Moscow University. He was the first to measure the value of light pressure on solid bodies and gases, and in that way had experimentally confirmed the Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light.
To honor his contribution into science development Professor Lebedev was nominated to the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, he passed away on March 1, 1912 before the prize was awarded.
Professor Lebedev had established a strong school of thought in Physics, including more than 30 scientists. Among his disciples were Professors P.P. Lazarev, S.I. Vavilov, N.N. Andreev, V.K. Arkadyev, T.P. Kravets, A.S. Predvoditelev and many other. In 1919 V.K. Arkadyev established the Moscow magnetic laboratory, which found the world’s acknowledgement soon afterwards. In this laboratory great many leading magnitologists had began their career.
In 1926 Professor S.I. Vavilov and Professor V.L. Levshin laid the basis of luminosity theory and discovered the first nonlinear optical effect.
In 1928 Professor L.I. Mandelshtam together with Professor G.S. Landsberg, discovered the phenomenon of conbinational dispersion of light using the quartz crystals. For the same simultaneously obtained results on bensole a physicist from India, Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize.

In 1933 the Faculty of Physics was established in Moscow State University.

In 1938, Prof. A.A. Vlasov developed the kinetic theory and derived the fundamental equations (called in his name), which are widely used now in plasma theory.
In 1950-70^th, Profs. R.V. Khokhlov and S.A. Akhmanov developed theory of nonlinear phenomena in the radio and optical ranges. In 1965, the parametric optical oscillator was launched to work at one of the Faculty’s labs. Prof. R.V. Khokhlov was elected rector of Moscow State in 1973 and was in the office until his death in 1977.
In 1958, Prof. S.N. Vernov discovered the radioactive high intensity belts around the Earth, resulted from caption of high energy cosmic particles by the geomagnetic field. The outstanding discoveries had been made by Profs. A.A. Logunov and V.P. Maslov. Prof. A.A. Loguniv served also as rector of Moscow State in 1977–1992.
In the period of 1958–1980, the faculty members won 24 diplomas for their publicly registered in the USSR scientific discoveries. It should be mentioned also that the overall number of discoveries in natural sciences that time resulted in 250.
Seven out of ten Russian Nobel Prize winners in Physics have been working at the Faculty of Physics: Profs. I.E.Tamm and I.M.Frank, who won the Nobel Prize in 1958 “for discovery and interpretation of Cherenkov effect”; Prof. L.D.Landau, who won the Nobel Prize in 1962 “for the pioneering research in the theory of condensed matter and liquid Helium, in particular“, Professor A.M.Prokhorov, who won the Nobel Prize in 1964 “for fundamental works in the field of quantum electronics that led to the laser invention”; Prof. P.L.Kapitsa, who won the Nobel Prize in 1978 “for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics”. In October 7, 2003, the former Faculty’s Prof. A.A.Abrikosov and the former faculty’s graduate, Prof. V.L. Ginzburg were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their outstanding works in the field of theory of superconductivity and superfluidity.

I.E.Tamm	I.M. Frank	L.D. Landau	A.M. Prokhorov
P.L. Kapitsa	V.L. Ginzburg	A.A. Abrikosov	A.D. Sakharov

Prof. A.D. Sakharov, our graduate, also becomes a Nobel Prize winner for Peace. His outstanding achievements in physics, specifically his participation in the thermonuclear bomb project, are acknowledged worldwide.
In the overall history of the Faculty of Physics, 82 academicians, 58 correspondent members of Petersburg Academy of Sciences, USSR Academy of Sciences, and then Russian Academy of Sciences, and 8 Nobel Prize winners used to work with in the Faculty. More than 600 staff members have been awarded with 1700 State Prizes of the tsarist Russia, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation.
Many chairs at the Faculty of Physics have been established by outstanding scientists, namely, Prof. S.I. Vavilov (President of the USSR Academy of Sciences), Prof. L.I. Mandel’shtam, Prof. A.N. Tikhonov, Prof. I.E. Tamm (Nobel Prize winner), Prof. P.L. Kapitsa (Nobel Prize winner), and many others.
In the last decade, five new chairs were established at the Faculty, namely, the chairs of computer methods in physics, physics of condensed matter, experimental astronomy, neutronography, and medical physics.