Pierre-Michel Duffieux (1891–1976) was a French physicist, known as the founder of

Fourier optics Fourier optics is the study of classical optics using Fourier transforms (FTs), in which the waveform being considered is regarded as made up of a combination, or '' superposition'', of plane waves. It has some parallels to the Huygens–Fresnel pri ...

Life and career

Duffieux became interested in physics by listening to the lectures of

Pierre Duhem Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (; 9 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who worked on thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. Duhem was also a historian of science, noted for his work on the Eu ...

in high school in Bordeaux. In 1912 he entered 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, S ...

. During the

first world war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was involved in military work under the supervision of Henri Bénard, applying Fourier methods to measuring the coefficients of

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...

. This work resulted in his first scientific publication. In 1920 Duffieux became an assistant of

Charles Fabry Maurice Paul Auguste Charles Fabry (; 11 June 1867 – 11 December 1945) was a French physicist. Life Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on i ...

in Marseille, earning his doctorate in 1925 with a thesis on band spectroscopy. Afterward he worked in interference spectroscopy, moving to Rennes in 1927. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Duffieux discovered

, presenting his ideas at a meeting of the French Society of Physics in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1941, and publishing several papers. He completed a monograph on the subject in 1943–1944, which was privately published after the war in 1946. The work gained little attention outside France until Born and

Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

called attention to it in their text, '' Principles of Optics'' (1959). A second edition of Duffieux's book was published in 1970 by Masson (Paris) and an English translation appeared in 1983. After the war, Duffieux moved to

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

and became the chair of optics at the university. Duffieux was also interested in philosophy, music, and the meaning and interpretation of quantum theory.Emil Wolf (1997). Message addressed to the Société Française des Microscopies on the occasion of the Duffieux Symposium by Emil Wolf, Wilson Professor of Optical Physics, University of Rochester. Reproduced as Appendix II of Hawkes & Bonnet (1997).

References

Bibliography

* Max Born and Emil Wolf (1999). '' Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light'', seventh edition (Cambridge University Press), p. 543. * P.-M. Duffieux (1983). ''The Fourier Transform and its Applications to Optics'' (Wiley, New York). * Peter Hawkes and Noël Bonnet (1997). A symposium in honour of Pierre-Michel Duffieux. ''Microscopy, Microanalysis, Microstructures'' vol. 8, no. 1, pp. ix - xiv. *

André Maréchal Robert Gaston André Maréchal (10 December 1916 – 14 October 2007) was a French researcher and administrator in optics. André Maréchal was director general of the French Institut d'Optique. In 1986 Maréchal was elected to Honorary Mem ...

(1976)
Pierre-Michel Duffieux
''Physics Today'', vol. 29, No. 11 (November), p. 85.

External links

* Former laboratory of P. M. Duffieu
FEMTO-ST : Département d'Optique P. M. Duffieux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffieux, Pierre-Michel 1891 births 1976 deaths Scientists from Bordeaux French physicists Optical physicists