Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
laureate in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
in 1991.
Education and early life
He was born 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 ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, and was
home-schooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
to the age of 12. By the age of 13, he had adopted adult reading habits and was visiting museums.
Later, de Gennes studied 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, S ...
. After leaving the ''École'' in 1955, he became a research engineer at the
Saclay center of 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 ...
, working mainly on
neutron scattering
Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. Th ...
and magnetism, with advice from
Anatole Abragam
Anatole Abragam (15 December 1914 – 8 June 2011) was a French physicist who wrote ''The Principles of Nuclear Magnetism'' and made significant contributions to the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. Originally from Griva, Courland Govern ...
and
Jacques Friedel. He defended his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1957 at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
.
Career and research
In 1959, he was a
postdoctoral research
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
visitor with
Charles Kittel
Charles Kittel (July 18, 1916 – May 15, 2019) was an American physicist. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley from 1951 and was professor emeritus from 1978 until his death.
Life and work
Charles Kittel was born in New Yo ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, and then spent 27 months in the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
. In 1961, he was assistant professor in
Orsay
Orsay () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris.
A fortified location of the Chevreuse valley since the 8th centur ...
and soon started the Orsay group on
superconductors
Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...
. In 1968, he switched to studying
liquid crystals.
In 1971, he became professor at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...
, and participated in STRASACOL (a joint action of
Strasbourg, Saclay and ''Collège de France'') on polymer physics. From 1980 on, he became interested in interfacial problems: the dynamics of wetting and
adhesion
Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another ( cohesion refers to the tendency of similar or identical particles/surfaces to cling to one another).
The forces that cause adhesion and cohesion can b ...
.
He worked on
granular material
A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact (the most common example would be friction when grains collide). The constituents that compose gra ...
s and on the nature of memory objects in the brain.
Awards and honours
Awarded the
Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize
The Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize is a major European prize for Physics awarded jointly every year by the British Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Société Française de Physique (SFP). It is one of the four Grand Prix of the SFP and one of ...
in 1968.
He was awarded the
Harvey Prize
Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion in Haifa.
History
The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...
,
Lorentz Medal
Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for impor ...
and
Wolf Prize
The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...
in 1988 and 1990. In 1991, he received the
Nobel Prize in physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
. He was then director of the
(ESPCI), a post he held from 1976 until his retirement in 2002.
P.G. de Gennes has also received the
F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research of the
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
in 1997, the
Holweck Prize
The Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize is a major European prize for Physics awarded jointly every year by the British Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Société Française de Physique (SFP). It is one of the four Grand Prix of the SFP and one of ...
from the joint French and British Physical Society; the Ampere Prize, French Academy of Science; the gold medal from the French CNRS; the Matteuci Medal, Italian Academy; the
Harvey Prize
Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion in Haifa.
History
The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...
, Israel; and polymer awards from both APS and ACS.
He was awarded the above-mentioned Nobel Prize for discovering that "methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers".
The
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...
awards the
De Gennes Prize biennially, in his honour.
He was elected a
Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1984.
He was awarded
A. Cemal Eringen Medal
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
in 1998.
Personal life
He married Anne-Marie Rouet
(born in 1933) in June 1954.
They remained married until his death and had three children together: Christian (born 9 December 1954), Dominique (born 6 May 1956) and Marie-Christine (born 11 January 1958).
He also has four children with physicist
Françoise Brochard-Wyart (born in 1944) who was one of his former doctoral students and then colleague and co-author.
The children are:
Claire Wyart (born 16 February 1977),
Matthieu Wyart (born 24 May 1978), Olivier Wyart (born 3 August 1984) and Marc de Gennes (born 16 January 1991).
Professors
John Goodby
John William Goodby is a British materials chemist.
He is the chairman of materials chemistry at the University of York. He studies liquid crystals, complex fluids and self-organising systems. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
...
and
George Gray noted in an obituary: "Pierre was a man of great charm and humour, capable of making others believe they, too, were wise. We will remember him as an inspirational lecturer and teacher, an authority on Shakespeare, an expert skier who attended conference lectures appropriately attired with skis to hand, and, robed in red, at the Bordeaux liquid crystal conference in 1978, took great delight in being inaugurated as a Vignoble de St Émilion."
In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the
Humanist Manifesto
''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...
.
On 22 May 2007, his death was made public as official messages and tributes poured in.
[
On nuclear fusion he was quoted as saying, "We say that we will put the Sun into a box. The idea is pretty. The problem is, we don't know how to make the box."
]
References
External links
* including the Nobel Lecture, 9 December 1991 ''Soft Matter''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gennes, Pierre Gilles de
1932 births
2007 deaths
École Normale Supérieure alumni
University of California, Berkeley staff
Experimental physicists
Collège de France faculty
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
French physicists
Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Nobel laureates in Physics
French Nobel laureates
Lorentz Medal winners
Wolf Prize in Physics laureates
ESPCI Paris faculty
Liquid crystals
Lycée Saint-Louis alumni
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Scientists from Paris
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Paris-Saclay University people
Paris-Saclay University alumni
Recipients of the Matteucci Medal
French materials scientists
Presidents of the Société Française de Physique