Editing Alexander Prokhorov (section)

==Early life==
Alexander Michael Prochoroff was born on 11 July 1916 at Russell Road, [[Peeramon, Queensland|Peeramon]], [[Queensland]], Australia (now 322 Gadaloff Road, [[Butchers Creek, Queensland|Butchers Creek]], situated about 30&nbsp;km from [[Atherton, Queensland|Atherton]]), to Mikhail Ivanovich Prokhorov and Maria Ivanovna (née Mikhailova), [[Russia]]n revolutionaries who had emigrated from Russia to escape repression by the [[tsar]]ist regime. As a child he attended Butchers Creek State School.<ref name=birth>Tablelander (newspaper) 19 July 2016 'Prokharov centenary'</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Collins|first=Stephen|date=October 2016|title=National Science Week 2016 - "Prokhorov Centenary|url=https://optics.org.au/resources/aosnews/2016-3.pdf|journal=AOS News|volume=30|issue=3|pages=14–15|issn=1832-4436|access-date=21 February 2022|archive-date=21 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221012236/https://optics.org.au/resources/aosnews/2016-3.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1923, after the [[October Revolution]] and the [[Russian Civil War]], the family returned to Russia. In 1934, Prokhorov entered the [[Saint Petersburg State University]] to study physics. He was a member of the [[Komsomol]] from 1930 to 1944. Prokhorov graduated with honors in 1939 and moved to Moscow to work at the [[Lebedev Physical Institute]], in the oscillations laboratory headed by academician [[Nikolai Papaleksi|N. D. Papaleksi]]. His research there was devoted to propagation of radio waves in the [[ionosphere]]. At the onset of [[World War II]], in June 1941, he joined the [[Red Army]]. Prokhorov fought in the infantry, was wounded twice in battles, and was awarded three medals, including the [[Medal "For Courage" (Russia)|Medal For Courage]] in 1946.<ref name=family/> He was demobilized in 1944 and returned to the Lebedev Institute where, in 1946, he defended his Ph.D. thesis on "Theory of Stabilization of Frequency of a Tube Oscillator in the Theory of a Small Parameter".<ref name=nobel>{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1964 ''Quantum Electronics''</ref><ref name=bse>[http://bse.sci-lib.com/article093736.html Прохоров Александр Михайлович] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005091809/http://bse.sci-lib.com/article093736.html |date=5 October 2015 }} in [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]] {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref name=hero/>