Cherenkov, Pavel Alekseyevich (1904-1990)

Soviet physicist. In 1934 he discovered Cherenkov radiation; this occurs as a bluish light when charged atomic particles pass through water or other media at a speed in excess of that of light. He shared a Nobel prize 1958 with his colleagues Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for work resulting in a cosmic-ray counter. Cherenkov discovered that this effect was independent of any medium and depended for its production on the passage of high velocity electrons.