Jacques Villain (; 13 March 1934 – 12 June 2022) was a French physicist. He received his PhD at the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, did research at the

Institut Laue-Langevin An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, held, from 1984 to 1988, the position of a director at the

Jülich Research Centre Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', nl, Gulik, french: Juliers, Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As a border region betwe ...

in Germany, and he was, since 1996, ''directeur des recherches'' at the

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and securit ...

. In the year 2000 he was elected as a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

. His main research areas are in

Statistical Physics Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the Mathematics, mathematical tools for dealing with large populations ...

Solid State Physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...

, and

Surface Science Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum interfaces, and liquid–gas interfaces. It includes the fiel ...

. He is best known for his excellent contributions to the theory of

crystal growth A crystal is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. Crystal growth is a major stage of a crystallization process, and consists of the a ...

, surface dynamics, low-dimensional

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

, as well as spatially modulated, commensurate and incommensurate structures in solids.

Career

Jacques Villain made his debut as a researcher in 1958 at the CEA Saclay where he remained until 1970, with a break of 27 months for military service and another of 6 months where he was an expert in Yugoslavia for the International Energy Agency Atomic. From 1970 to 1975, he worked as a researcher at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, then from 1975 to 1984 at the CEA Grenoble. He then directed a laboratory at the Jülich Research Center in Germany, from 1984 to 1988. He was then research director at CEA Grenoble where he became scientific advisor after his retirement, from 1996 to 2009. Jacques Villain was a long-term visitor at the Institut Laue-Langevin and chief editor of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (Physics).

References

External links

Citation of Jacques Villain by the Académie des sciences with biography
1934 births 2022 deaths French physicists École Normale Supérieure alumni Members of the French Academy of Sciences French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission {{France-physicist-stub