2 Mar 2019 20:57

Alferov was "implacable fighter" for pure science - deputy science minister Trubnikov

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Zhores Alferov discovered a new area of modern science and was an outstanding scientist and a prominent public figure, according to Grigory Trubnikov, an academic, physicist and Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education.

"This is a great loss for our science and for our society as a whole. An outstanding scientist, the Russian Nobel [laureate], an implacable fighter for the principles of pure science. He was afraid of no one and always had and defended his own opinion, selflessly and sincerely. The founder of a whole new area in world science, a true physicist, who developed the institute and university center during the most difficult times. A bright tribune and public figure, a popularizer of science," Trubnikov told Interfax on Saturday.

To his friends and colleagues Alferov was a sincere and profound man, he said.

"I had the happiness to have met and spoken to him: he was a remarkable interlocutor, a very deep and sincere man. Our science, we will sorely miss him," Trubnikov said.

Alferov died aged 88 after a long illness in St. Petersburg in the early hours of Saturday.