Gersh Itskovitch Budker (1918—1977) was Professor, since 1964 the Academician of the USSR Academy of Science (since 1958 a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences). He was a physicist, the founder of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous discoveries and inventions in plasma physics and accelerator physics. In 1965 Budker introduced the concept of electron cooling of proton and ion beams. The method is widely used now at work with heavy ions. In his later years Budker actively promoted the idea of linear collider with the collision energy of hundreds GeV.