Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg — Nobel Prize laureate in physics. Born in 1916. In 1945, Academician Alexander Andronov invited the 29-year-old research associate of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences — a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences — to take up a teaching post at the radiophysics faculty of Lobachevsky University. By April 1946, Vitaly Ginzburg had already been appointed head of the Department of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation.
At meetings with Nizhny Novgorod residents journalists, Vitaly Lazarevich often recalled with humor his first arrival in City of Gorky in December 1945. The young scientist arrived in an unfamiliar city, as he himself put it, "on a rather uncomfortable train, with one small plywood suitcase in hand." From Moscow Railway Station to the Lobachevsky University, he was guided for a small fee by a local man with a sled, onto which the visitor's modest luggage was loaded. They made their way on foot from Kanavino to Sverdlov Street, crossing the Oka over the snow-covered ice… For more than 15 years, Ginzburg worked simultaneously at two research centers — the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow and Gorky State University. In 1947, the Academic Council of Gorky State University conferred upon him the rank of professor, but the All-Union Attestation Commission refused to ratify the decision. Against the backdrop of the anti-cosmopolitanism campaign then sweeping the country, Ginzburg was accused in a Literaturnaya Gazeta article of "groveling before foreign scientists." Even a personal appeal by Academician Alexander Andronov to USSR Minister of Higher Education Kaftanov came to nothing. Yet his colleagues at Gorky University refused to overturn the Academic Council's decision, and thanks to their persistence, the commission was compelled in March 1949 to award Vitaly Lazarevich the professorial title. Soon the young scientist committed yet another "sin." He married Nina Ivanovna Yermakova, whom he had met in City of Gorky. The young woman was living with her aunt in Bor, having been exiled from Moscow on the grounds that she had allegedly been part of a group of fellow students plotting to assassinate Stalin in 1944. Nina Ivanovna spent nine months in prison and was then sent to a labor camp. The absurdity of the charge soon became apparent even to those who had fabricated the case. In the end, she fell under the amnesty declared in connection with Victory in the Great Patriotic War, but was forbidden to return to the capital. Nina Yermakova continued her studies in Gorky and successfully completed two degree programs — at the polytechnic institute and the institute of foreign languages. His marriage to an "exile" continued to interfere with Ginzburg's scientific work for years to come. For a long time, for example, he was denied access to Arzamas-16, even though he was working on the relevant subject matter and was the author of a number of pioneering projects for the nuclear industry. Now, many years later, the couple — who spent nearly six decades together — recall those times with a bittersweet smile and are grateful to the city of Gorky, which became the birthplace of their remarkable family… It can be said that the scientific school of Vitaly Ginzburg took shape at Gorky State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky and developed along two lines: the first was the study of electromagnetic wave propagation in ionospheric and cosmic plasma, and the second was connected with astrophysics and radio astronomy. Thanks to Ginzburg, an outstanding body of researchers was formed in Gorky — Nizhny Novgorod, all of whom achieved remarkable scientific results. Among Ginzburg's students and followers are RAS Academician Vladimir Vasilyevich Zheleznyakov, RAS Corresponding Member Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Andronov Jr., and Doctors of Physical and Mathematical Sciences — Professors Mikhail Mikhailovich Kobrin, German Grigoryevich Getmantsev, Nikolay Grigoryevich Denisov, Boris Nikolaevich Gershman, Vladimir Platonovich Dokuchayev, Vladimir Georgiyevich Gavrilenko, and others. In 1953, for his participation in the development of nuclear weapons, Vitaly Ginzburg was awarded the Order of Lenin, received the Stalin Prize of the First Degree, and was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1966, Vitaly Lazarevich became a Full Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and was elected a full member of nine foreign academies of sciences. He was awarded the most prestigious named prizes in science: the Mandelstam Prize (1947), the Lomonosov Prize (twice — 1962 and 1995), the Lenin Prize (1966), the Bardeen Prize (1991), the Wolf Prize (1995), and the Sergei Vavilov Prize (1995). In October 2003, the great Russian scientist Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids." On the subject of this — the most prestigious of prizes — Vitaly Lazarevich had remarked as far back as 1979: "I do not expect to receive the Nobel Prize; there is too much of a crush there, and I am not at all afflicted with megalomania or convinced that they must give it to me — only that they could… If not, then so be it; but if others receive it — as sometimes happens — for something for which I should also have been considered, then that will be a pity…" In January 2001, Vitaly Ginzburg was honored with the title of Honorary Professor of Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N. I. Lobachevsky.