Nicolay G. Basov (1922-2001) was a Soviet and Russian physicist, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1964), the Lenin Prize (1959) and the USSR State Prize (1989), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982). He was born on December 14, 1922, in the town of Usman in the Lipetsk Region. In 1941, Basov finished a secondary school in Voronezh, was drafted into the army and sent to the Kuibyshev Medical Academy. After the war, he entered the Moscow Engineering Physic Institute (MEPhI), where he completed his degree in 1950. From 1948, he worked as a laboratory assistant at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN), where he continued his work after graduation from MEPhI under academic supervision of M. Leontovich and A. Prokhorov. In 1958-1972, Basov was a Deputy Director of FIAN, and from 1973 to 1989, he was the Director of this Institute. In 1963, he established a Laboratory of Quantum Radiophysics in FIAN. In 1962, Basov was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1966, he was elected an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Nicolay Basov was the Editor-in-Chief of the Nauka (Science), Kvantovaya Elektronika (Quantum Electronics), and Priroda (Nature) journals and a member of the Editorial Board of the Kvant (Quantum) journal. N. Basov and A. Prokhorov were awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959, and in 1964, in collaboration with Ch. Townes, they received the Physics Nobel Prize for "fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle". A number of Basov's works were devoted to the issues of powerful laser pulse propagation and interaction with matter. He advanced an idea of using lasers for controlled thermonuclear fusion; he proposed methods of laser heating of plasma; he analyzed processes of chemical reaction initiation with laser emission. The scientist developed the physical basis for the formation of quantum frequency standards and put forward ideas for new laser applications in optoelectronics.
The postage stamp provides a portrait of N. Basov, Nobel Prize laureate, scientist, fragments of formulae and the logo of the Kvantovaya Elektronika journal.
In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and Voronezh.
Design Artist: M. Podobed.
Face value: 50 rubles.
Stamp size: 32.5×32.5 mm, sheet size: 119×123 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 9 (3×3) stamps.
Quantity: 117 thousand stamps (13 thousand sheets).
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