Il´ja M. Frank

Facts

Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Il´ja Mikhailovich Frank
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1958

Born: 23 October 1908, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia

Died: 22 June 1990, Moscow, USSR (now Russia)

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Moscow, Moscow, USSR, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, USSR

Prize motivation: "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect."

Prize share: 1/3

Work

In certain media the speed of light is lower than in a vacuum and particles can travel faster than light. One result of this was discovered in 1934 by Pavel Cherenkov, when he saw a bluish light around a radioactive preparation placed in water. Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm explained the phenomenon in 1937. On their way through a medium, charged particles disturb electrons in the medium. When these resume their position, they emit light. Normally this does not produce any light that can be observed, but if the particle moves faster than light, a kind of backwash of light appears

To cite this section
MLA style: Il´ja M. Frank – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Sat. 16 Nov 2019. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1958/frank/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Learn more

Nobel Prizes 2019

Fifteen laureates have been awarded this year, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.

Their work and discoveries range from how cells adapt to changes in levels of oxygen to our ability to fight global poverty.

See them all presented here.
2019 Nobel Laureates

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.