On February 20 in Kyiv physics Nobel Prize winner and Russian Academy of Sciences Vice President Zhores Alfiorov received his next award, Ukrainian this time. By the decision of the Twenty-First Century Ukraine Foundation for Intellectual Cooperation the youngest winner for 2000 contest was awarded the Vernadsky Prize medal for significant contribution to the development of world science. Experts believe the research conducted by Zhores Alfiorov owns the future. The semiconducting heterostructures the scientist has been exploring since the 1960s are a new type of semiconductor. Modern optical fiber electronics, high-speed microelectronics, according to the scientist, are based on these very heterostructures. As foundation council chairman Bohdan Hubsky stated it after the awards ceremony, at a time when science in the post- Soviet states has lost its prestige, the granting of a Nobel Prize to a representative of the Russian science is a ray of hope for our countries which have strong scientific ties, reports correspondent Oksana OMELCHENKO.
