MOSCOW, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Renowned Russian theoretical physicist and astrophysicist Vitaly Ginzburg, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003, died in Moscow of chronic illness late Sunday at the age of 93.

    Lebedev Physical Institute of Russian Academy of Science (FIAN), where Ginzburg had worked as head of the Department of Theoretical Physics, made the announcement.

    Born on Oct. 4, 1916, Ginzburg graduated from Moscow State University with a doctoral degree in physics in 1942. His achievements included the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity jointly developed with Lev Landau, the theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas, and a theory of the origin of cosmic radiation.

    Ginzburg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Oct. 7, 2003,together with two U.S. physicist, for "decisive contributions concerning two phenomena in quantum physics: superconductivity and superfluidity," said the official website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.