Nikolai Basov, together with Aleksandr Prokhorov (USSR) and Charles Townes (US), receives the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the physical principles of the laser and maser. Basov and Prokhorov independently developed at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, starting in 1952, the theoretical foundations of amplification of radiation by stimulated emission, publishing their results in 1954. Basov specifically proposed the semiconductor laser in 1958 and demonstrated it experimentally in 1962 — the base technology of CD and DVD readers, fiber optics, laser surgery, and modern communications. The Nobel Prize explicitly recognized that the Soviets had developed these principles independently and simultaneously with Townes.