Alexei A Abrikosov, Vitaly L Ginzburg and Anthony J Leggett will share this year's Nobel Prize for Physics for their pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductors and superfluids.
Superconducting material is used, for example, in magnetic resonance imaging for medical examinations and particle accelerators in physics. Knowledge about superfluid liquids can give us deeper insight into the ways in which matter behaves in its lowest and most ordered state.
Russian Vitaly Ginzburg told a news agency that he was 'delighted'. But he was modest that the trio had been chosen among many others who toil away in the same field.
"They called me from Stockholm, I am obviously delighted. What else can I say?" said Ginzburg.
"The rules of the Nobel prize mean they cannot choose more than three names but a large number of people worked in this field," he added.
Abrikosov, a Russian and a US citizen, and Leggett, a British-American citizen, both live in the United States, whereas Ginzburg, a Russian, lives in Moscow.
Physicist Zhores Alferov in 2000 became the first Russian to win a Nobel since Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the 1990 peace prize.
Anthony Leggett said he was 'surprised and honoured' by his award.
"I had thought there was some slight chance I might someday get a Nobel Prize, but I didn't think it was very probable," the 65-year-old told a news agency from his home in Urbana, central Illinois.
The British physicist was recognised for his work on superfluidity in the early 1970s -- research that helped pave the way for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a technique that revolutionised the field of medical diagnostics.
Leggett, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, did his award-winning research at the University of Sussex in southern England in 1973.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is celebrating his birthday with close friends in his hometown St.Petersburg, congratulated the new Nobel laureates Russians Alexei Abrikosov and Vitaly Ginzburg, the Kremlin press office said.
According to a Kremlin source Putin, who 'works day-and-night to restore Russia's pride and prestige could hardly expect a birthday present better than this'.
Agencies
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