A Professor, Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics, Principal Researcher of the Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences, an outstanding Russian physicist Vladilen Stepanovich Letokhov died on March 21^st 2009. He was sixty-nine years old.

Vladilen Letokhov was born on November 10^th 1939 in the city of Tayshet, Irkutsk region. After graduating Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1963 Prof. Letokhov became a PhD student of the Lebedev Institute of Physics under the supervision of the academician N. G. Basov. The start of his scientific research concurs with the thriving development of research in the fields of quantum electronics and laser physics. In the course of that period, Prof. Letokhov carried out pioneering research of generation and amplification high power laser pulses, lasers with nonresonant feedback, of lasers with highly stable frequencies.

In 1970^th Prof. Letokhov was invited by S. L Mandelstam to become a deputy director of research in a newly organized Institute of Spectroscopy, the USSR Academy of Sciences and simultaneously became a head researcher in a new scientific stream, laser spectroscopy of atoms and molecules. Shortly after that Prof. Letokhov founded in the Institute of Spectroscopy an actively working group of young researchers, formulated and brought into life, together with his young co-workers, a whole spectrum of new ideas, which were ahead of similar works worldwide. Among that was the study of multi-photon isotope-selective dissociation of molecules by IR laser light, the work that was a milestone in the development of the first industrial set-up for laser isotope separation; formulation of the principles of laser photo-ionization, the study of the detection of single atoms, and its application for ultrasensitive spectral analysis; development of laser cooling of atoms including pioneering experiments which lead to the establishment of the physics of ultra cold atoms; development of atom optics including collimation, reflection, and focusing of atomic beams, which extended the array of methods of photon, electron, and neutron optics, and evolved later into the methods of optical nanotechnology; the development of optical mass spectrometry of organic molecules; development of pico- and femto-second nonlinear laser spectroscopy for investigation of the ultra-short processes in solids. In his last years Prof. Letokhov carried out research in the fields of nano-photonics and laser effects in interstellar medium.

Prof. Letokhov’s achievements, obtained in collaboration with his group, were internationally recognized by science community, many of his research works got highest citation index. His legacy includes more than 850 research papers and 16 monographs. Prof. Letokhov was awarded the Lenin Prize and the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Among his awards are also the Rozdestvensky prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the prize of the European Physical Community. He was elected an Honorary Doctor by a number of European universities and academies and an Honorary Citizen of Troitsk city.

Vladilen Letokhov was the founder and for many years a leader of school of research. More than 60 PhD theses were completed under his supervision, 12 of his pupils became doctors of sciences in physics and mathematics.

Vladilen Letokhov will live forever in the hearts of his friends, pupils and colleagues, all of those who admired his talent of a researcher, innovator and leader.

Presidium of the Troitsk Scientific Center
of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Institute for Spectroscopy
of the Russian Academy of Sciences