Vladimir Maximovich Tuchkevich (born 29.12.1904) is a Soviet physicist and an academician (1970; corresponding member, 1968). He was born in the village of Yanoutsy (now Ivanovtsy, Chernovtsy Oblast). He graduated from Kiev University (1928). He worked at the Ukrainian Meteorological Institute and the All-Ukrainian Roentgenological Institute. From 1936 he was at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (from 1967 as director), and in 1935-60 he also taught at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
His research was mainly in the physics and technology of semiconductors. He studied the generation and recombination of electrons and holes in germanium doped with various impurities, and the position of impurity levels. He obtained pure single crystals of germanium. He discovered interesting properties of gold-doped diodes and studied the behaviour of electrons and holes in systems with several electron-hole junctions. These studies led to the development of the principles for producing germanium junction diodes and triodes, photocells and photodiodes. In Tuchkevich's laboratory at the Physico-Technical Institute the first germanium and silicon diodes and triodes in the country were developed.
Together with B. M. Vul and S. G. Kalashnikov he laid the foundations of the Soviet semiconductor industry and created a new line of work — power semiconductor technology — developing power semiconductor devices: germanium and silicon rectifiers, powerful diffusion controlled rectifiers (thyristors) with high technical characteristics, and avalanche uncontrolled and controlled rectifiers (Lenin Prize, 1966).
Together with A. P. Alexandrov and I. V. Kurchatov he developed systems for demagnetising ships to protect them from magnetic mines (USSR State Prize, 1942). He carried out research on the separation of isotopes.
Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Technical Physics.