On Feb. 13 a meeting with Nobel Laureate Zhores Alferov was held in the framework of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technology opening in St. Petersburg and a series of public lectures on Science and Culture in the Twenty-first Century.
An outstanding scientist gave a lecture on Effective Light Conversion and Generation, outlining the history of technologies of energy and light acquisition and conversion. According to the Nobel laureate, by the middle of this century, the use of solar panels will be a very common way of electricity generation. Today it is already more profitable than to maintain the nuclear power plants operation.
"Of course, it is necessary to solve a number of problems, not only technological, but also political. The main task is to prove the usefulness of such developments and their economic profit to the leadership of our country," the scientist said.
The academician noted that scientific cooperation between the Russia and Ukraine has also deteriorated, in particular, due to the current political conflict. Back in 2013, joint investigation with research centers in Ukraine and a number of joint projects with the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev and Donetsk Polytechnic Universities were actively carried out. But now all these connections are lost.
 
Among others, the academician’s talked about other modern technologies in the field of optoelectronics and photonics, including his own discovery - semiconductor heterostructures. Initially, they were used in the DVD-players, but today this development determines the development of energy, communications, lighting, materials processing technologies.
“The lecture was very interesting,” says Michael Lukyantsev, a student of the ITMO University Faculty of Physics and Engineering. “Russia seems to have a good potential to take a leading position in the science areas related to light and lighting technologies. But students’ involvement in the process is crucial.”
Zhores Alferov has given this lecture for the first time at the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technology, which took place in January in Paris. Various conferences, symposia, exhibitions, competitions, lectures and seminars on the light sciences will take place all over the world during the year. Being one of the leading Russian scientific and educational centers in the field of optics and optical technologies, ITMO University became the main organizer of these events in St. Petersburg.
"This year we have planned an extensive program of activities,” says the dean of the ITMO University Faculty of Natural Sciences. “The Year of Light opening in St. Petersburg will be April, and we hope that Zhores Alferov will attend the ceremony. We want him to open the Magic of Light exhibition, which will be held in the summer, and to participate in the installation of a memorial to Academician Yuri Denisyuk, founder of holography, whom Zhores Alferov actually knew."