Ilya Frank
Soviet physicist
- Fame57.4
- Momentum0.0
- Scientists rank#153
Source-basedFalling
- Fame57.4
- Momentum0.0
- Scientists rank#153
- Wikipedia2.2K
Lived 1908–1990, aged 82
ScientistsScientist
Summary
Updated 2026-06-09
He explained why charged particles moving through certain materials emit that eerie blue glow — the phenomenon that now bears Cherenkov's name but earned Frank a share of the Nobel.
Biography
About
Ilya Mikhailovich Frank was born on 23 October 1908 in the waning years of the Russian Empire. Working alongside Pavel Cherenkov and Igor Tamm, he built the theoretical framework that made sense of Cherenkov radiation — the light emitted when particles exceed the speed of light in a given medium. The three Soviet physicists shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work. Frank collected Stalin Prizes in 1946 and 1953, and a USSR State Prize in 1971. He died on 22 June 1990, having spent his career turning strange optical effects into rigorous physics.
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Fame
Falling57.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical22.1
Source confidence60.0
Completeness60.0
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- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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