Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002)

Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist and researcher whose work focused on quantum electronics. His most famous and well-known works were on optics and electromagnetic research. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 with Charles Hard Townes and Nikolay Basov for his fundamental work that led to the development of the laser and the maser.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901, the others being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is traditionally the first award presented in the Nobel Prize ceremony.