Frank, Ilya Mikhailoivich (1908–1990)

Russian physicist who was known for his work on radiation. In 1934 PavelCherenkov had noted a peculiar blue radiation sometimes emitted as electrons passed through water.

It was left to Frank and his colleague at Moscow University, Igor Tamm, to realize that this form of radiation was produced by charged particles travelling faster through the medium than the speed of light in the same medium.

Frank shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1958 with Cherenkov and Tamm for their discovery and interpretation of Cherenkov radiation.