Dr. Eid Hourany (18 March 1940 – 17 November 2008) was a French and Lebanese

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. He studied in the Science Faculty in the Lebanese University ( ar, كلية العلوم، الجامعة اللبنانية) at Hadath

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. He achieved his State PhD in France at the Institut of Nuclear Physics (french: Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay) at Orsay where he was coached by Dr Toshiko Yuasa. From 1971 until 1982, he was Professor in Physics and finally Head of the Physics department at Hadath University (Beyrouth). He joined French National Research Centre (CNRS) in 1982. From 1982 until 2006 he pursued several research activities and contributed to more than 80 scientific publications. He officially retired from

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

in 2006 with the grade of "Directeur de Recherche". He continued his research activity until 2008 (year of death)

Family

Eid Hourany was born in

Yaroun Yaroun (also spelled Yarun; ar, يارون)From personal name, according to Palmer, 1881, p104"perhaps the Iron of Josh. xix 38" is a Lebanese village located in the Caza of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatieh Governorate in Lebanon. Geography Yaroun ...

(South Lebanon) in March 1940. His parents were Lotof and Jamila Hourany. He had two sisters and two brothers. Due to hazardous translation from Arabic in his early French administrative papers, his name was sometimes referred to as "Hourani" instead of "Hourany".

Research

He carried out his first research work during his PhD. From 1992 until 1995 he made major contributions to discoveries in

Cluster decay Cluster decay, also named heavy particle radioactivity or heavy ion radioactivity, is a rare type of nuclear decay in which an atomic nucleus emits a small "cluster" of neutrons and protons, more than in an alpha particle, but less than a typic ...

by achieving experimental confirmation of a fine structure in 14C radioactivity of 223Ra. He used for this purpose intense radioactive sources created in

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

accelerator (Genève) and a supraconducting magnetic solenoïde developed some years before(named "SOLENO"). His latest research activity concerned GRAAL European projectLatest results from GRAAL collaboration V. Vegna et al 2009 Chinese Phys. C 33 1249 doi:10.1088/1674-1137/33/12/032 http://iopscience.iop.org/1674-1137/33/12/032(to be documented).

Lebanese University, Science Faculty

He studied physics in the Lebanese University before gaining a scholarship to specialise in nuclear physics in France. From 1971 and after completing his PhD, he taught in the Faculty of Science in the Lebanese University and became the Head of the Physics Department until 1982.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hourany, Eid Lebanese physicists French nuclear physicists French physicists French people of Lebanese descent 1940 births 2008 deaths Academic staff of Lebanese University People associated with CERN