Frank, Ilya Mikhailovich 1908-90
Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), he was educated at Moscow State University, and in 1944 was appointed Professor of Physics there, after working for four years at the State Optical Institute. By 1937, working with Pavel Cherenkov and Igor Tamm, he and his colleagues were able to explain the 'Cherenkov effect', which arises when a charged particle traverses a medium when moving at a speed greater than the speed of light in that medium. The effect is dramatically visible in the blue glow in a uranium reactor core containing heavy water. Cherenkov, Frank and Tamm shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1958.