The Resume

(March 15, 1930-March 1, 2019)
Born in Viciebsk, Belarus
Physicist
Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the semiconductor heterojunction (2000)

Why he might be annoying:

His first name is a Russified version of the last name of French socialist Jean Juares. (Could have been worse; his brother got saddled with Marx as a first name.)
He moved into his lab when the Soviet government moved up the deadline for producing a batch of transistors for its submarine fleet (1958).
He called the dissolution of the Soviet Union 'a great personal tragedy.'
While serving in the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament), he changed his political affiliation from the pro-Yeltsin party Our Home to the Communists (1999).

Why he might not be annoying:

He developed the first laser that operated at room temperature.
Hermann Grimmeiss of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (one of the bodies that awards Nobel Prizes) said, 'Without Alferov, it would not be possible to transfer all the information from satellites down to the Earth or to have so many telephone lines between cities.'
He said he entered politics reluctantly and only to ensure continued government financing for scientific research.
He was married to Tamara Darskaya for 51 years.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 20th Century Scientists
• 21st Century Scientists
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 88]
• I am a Jewish Atheist
• I am an Atheist
• I Died in 2019 (Ranked: 88)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Sought Political Office
• I'm a Communist
• Look at Me, I'm with Vladimir Putin
• Nobel Prize for Physics (Ranked: 2000)
• Profiles 54501-54750 (Ranked: 54554)
• Scientists
• We Celebrated Our Golden Anniversary

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 16 Votes: 43.75% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying