Alexander Alexeyevich Lebedev (26.02.1893—15.03.1969) was a Soviet physicist and an academician (1943; corresponding member 1939). He was born in Panevėžys. He graduated from Petrograd University (1916). From 1919 he worked at the State Optical Institute and at the same time, from 1922 (with interruptions), at Leningrad University, where from 1947 he headed the chair of electrophysics (in 1944 — 52 he was scientific director of the research institute of the Ministry of the Electrical Industry).
His work was in the field of applied and electron optics. He studied the annealing of optical glass and developed the crystalline theory of the glassy state, which was confirmed by the creation of glass-ceramics; he carried out wide-ranging research on the antireflection coating of optics, on the introduction of interference methods into metrology, on atmospheric optics and on optical ranging. Under his direction and with his direct participation, optical installations for photographing fast processes (USSR State Prize, 1949), optical quantum generators and new light sources were created.
His research on electron optics, begun as early as 1930, is widely known. He carried out work on the calculation of a variety of electron-optical systems and on the design of the optics and the circuits of numerous electron-optical instruments and installations (in particular, in 1931 he built a polarisation interferometer), as well as research on the diffraction and interference of electrons. He was the first to use electron lenses in electron-optical instruments (1930). He directed the work that produced the first Soviet electron microscopes (USSR State Prize, 1947). He created a series of radiation detectors.
Hero of Socialist Labour (1957), the Lenin Prize (1959).