It may sound strange but the Normandy landings during World War II were a prelude to establishing the first Faculty of Radiophysics in Russia in the far away city of Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky, in 1932-1991). Being founded immeduately after the War (in 1945) the Radiophysics Faculty was born on the wave of a radiolocation boom in response to the radioelectronics challenge from the West, the birthplace being chosen thanks to the famous Nizhny Novgorod Radiolaboratory, the first in Russia.
The necessity of fast developing the latest technology required recruting prominent Russian specialists in electronics, radioengineering, radiowave propagation and theory of oscillations.
These were preciesly the directions of investigation which later on got the strongest impetus for their development duelat to the efforts of vigorous scientific school set up in Nizhny Novgorod. Its founders were A.A.Andronov, V.L.Ginsburg and M.T.Grekhova. They worked out a universal "radiophysical" approach to the Nature as a combination of wave and oscillatory processes. Breaking the interdisciplinary barriers, it proved to be especially fruitful in solving new problems in various fields of science and technology. Owing to their intellectual power and intense vitility radiophysicists were able to expand their activities into other fields of knowledge (e.g. oceanology, biology, medicine). Several major research centers were set up on the basis of the faculty: the Radiophysical Research Institute and the Institute of Applied Physics. In the early ninenties the Institute for Physics of Microstructures was founded for developing investigations in the most perspective trends of modern Applied Physics. Thus, the notion "Radiophysics" implies more wider meaning than the words "Radio Science" used usually abroad.
Among the graduates of the Faculty one can mention many prominent scientists such as A.V.Gaponov-Grekhov, V.I.Ilyitchov, V.I.Talanov, V.A.Zverev, V.V.Zheleznyakov, M.I.Rabinovich, G.G.Getmantsev, N.G.Denisov. Their fundamental works are widely known, and such classical books as "Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Plasma" by V.L.Ginsburg and "Theory of Oscillations" by A.A.Andronov, A.A.Vitt, S.E.Khaikin became indispensable for many generations of scientists.
Nowadays, when the lifetime of ideas is comparable with the period of getting education, scientific traditions and dynamism of radiophysicists are especially valuable as they make possible quick changes in the directions of research and cope with vital problems of modern science.In recent years the scientists are concentrating on superpower electronics for Tokomak systems and industry, laser technology for high-temperature superconductivity, research in ionosphere, new investigation methods of the ocean, diagnostics in medicine, non-linear waves, self-organization and chaos.
The Radiophysics Faculty is an intellectual core and an educational centre of the Nizhny Novgorod big scientific and technological complex in the field of electronics. The traditions mostly valued at the Faculty are the feeling of fellowship and the spirit of creativeness, students' and teachers' pursuit of knowledge, and the aspiration for a deep insight into the world.
Among the graduates of the Faculty there are 3 Academicians and 3 Corresponding Members of Russian Academy of Science, about 100 Doctors of Science and 800 Candidates of Science (PhD), directors and leading scientists of many academic research institutes, Universities and industrial research centers in the field of radioelectronics, the leaders of the Administration of Nizhny Novgorod region, heads of the biggest banks and firms, artists, musicians and poets.