Nikolay Basov (born December 14, 1922, Usman, nearVoronezh,Russia, U.S.S.R.—died July 1, 2001,Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet physicist, one of the founders ofquantum electronics, and a corecipient of theNobel Prize for Physics in 1964, withAleksandr Mikhaylovich Prokhorov of theSoviet Union andCharles H. Townes of theUnited States, for research leading to the development of both themaser and thelaser.

Basov served in the military duringWorld War II and in 1945 became a physics student at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. Upon graduation in 1950, he worked in Moscow at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute. In 1953 he received his doctorate (Russiankandidat nauk) degree from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. The higher degree ofdoktor nauk was awarded to him in 1956 for the theory and experimental realization of the maser.

In 1954, together with Prokhorov, Basov published a paper describing the possibility of a molecular generator ofcoherentmicrowave radiation. The idea was based on the effect ofstimulated emission of radiation by atoms, which had been postulated byAlbert Einstein in 1917. The device—subsequently named the maser—was also independently constructed in 1954 by Townes, James Gordon, and Herbert Zeiger atColumbia University inNew York City. Basov continued to make further important contributions to the development of the maser and to the development of the laser, ananalogous generator of coherent optical radiation. In addition to proposing the idea of a three-level laser in 1955 with Prokhorov, in 1959 Basov suggested constructing asemiconductor laser, which he built with collaborators in 1963. In 1962 Basov was elected a corresponding member, and in 1966 a full member, of the U.S.S.R.Academy of Sciences. He served as director of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute from 1973 to 1988.

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