Veniamin P Chebotaev earned his bachelor’s degree from the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics of the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This was also where he later worked as a research associate. In 1960, he graduated from Novosibirsk Institute of Electrical Engineering. He worked as head of the Gas Laser Experimental Laboratory of the Semiconductor Physical Institute in Novisibrisk before becoming the deputy director of the Thermal Physics Institute and chief of the Laser Laboratory at the Soviet Institute of Thermophysics. In 1984, he and John L. Hall were awarded OSA’s Charles Hard Townes Award “in recognition of independent pioneering efforts and continuing contributions in the field of laser metrology, ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy, and ultrastable laser sources.”

Chebotaev passed away in 1992.