
Vitaly L. Ginzburg
Wolf Prize Laureate in Physics 1994/5

Vitaly L. Ginzburg
Affiliation at the time of the award:
Lebedev Physical Institute, Russia
Award citation:
“for his contributions to the theory of superconductivity and to the theory of high-energy processes in astrophysics”.
Prize share:
Vitaly L. Ginzburg
Yoichiro Nambu
Professor Vitaly L. Ginzburg has pioneered the theory of uperconductivity for 50 years. He contributed to the formulation of the celebrated Ginzburg-Landau phenomenological theory of superconductivity, the influence of which has been felt in condensed matter physics and elementary particle physics until today. The theory permitted the prediction by Abrikosov of two types of superconductors including the technologically important hard superconductors. And Ginzburg pioneered now standard ideas of astrophysics: that galactic radio emission is synchrotron radiation, that cosmic rays are of galactic halo origin, and that neutron star interiors are superfluid, to name a few. Ginzburg is remarkable for his scientific breadth, and his long career is punctuated by many strokes of genius.
