Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alexander Prokhorov was born on the 11th of July 1916 in Atherton, Australia. His parents were Russian emigrants who had left Russia to escape repression under the Tsarist regime. The family returned to Russia in 1923 after the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War.
Prokhorov shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 with Nikolay Basov and Charles Hard Townes for fundamental work that led to the development of the laser and the maser. His contributions included theoretical and experimental work on molecular oscillators, population inversion using electromagnetic fields, and the invention of the open-type laser cavity in 1958.
Prokhorov shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov, his Soviet colleague at the Lebedev Institute, and Charles Hard Townes, an American physicist. All three were recognized for foundational work that underpinned the creation of both the maser and the laser.
Prokhorov identified ruby (chromium-doped aluminium oxide) as a potential active medium for a laser in 1957. In 1958 he proposed the open-type resonator cavity design that became standard in laser construction. In 1963, working with A. S. Selivanenko, he suggested a laser based on two-quantum transitions.
Prokhorov joined the Red Army in June 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. He served in the infantry, was wounded twice in battle, and received three medals including the Medal For Courage in 1946. He was demobilized in 1944, a year before the end of the war.
Starting in 1969, Prokhorov served as chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the Soviet Union's official reference work. The role gave him significant cultural and institutional authority within the Soviet scientific and academic establishment.