Arkan Simaan (born 1945) is a Lebanese-French novelist. Portrait d'Arkan Simaan, à la COP21

He was born in Lebanon in 1945. When he was two years old, his family immigrated to Brazil and settled in the city of

Anápolis Anápolis (, ) is a Brazilian city in the State of Goiás. It is located between two capitals, the federal capital Brasília and state capital Goiânia. It is the third most populous city in the state, with 391,772 inhabitants according to an e ...

near Brasilia. The

1964 Brazilian coup d'état The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état ( pt, Golpe de estado no Brasil em 1964), colloquially known in Brazil as the Coup of 64 ('), was a series of events in Brazil from March 31 to April 1 that led to the overthrow of President João Goulart by membe ...

overthrew the government of

João Goulart João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...

just as Simaan had begun studying physics at the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

. In response to this, he became a student activist. Sought by the political police and sentenced to jail in absentia, he went underground. His name was then cited in several prosecutions. Forced to flee Brazil, he arrived in Paris in 1970. After a few years in France, Simaan refrained from activities that were connected with his prior political involvement. In Paris he resumed his studies in physics at the University Paris Diderot. He then attended the Institut Supérieur des Matériaux et de la Construction Mécanique from which he received an engineering degree. Following a short spell in industry, he realized that he wanted to teach, so he obtained the ''

agrégation In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''profe ...

'' in physics. In 2012 he was one of the founders of Planète Amazone, a French non-governmental organization defending indigenous peoples. He took part in the travels in Europe of the chief

Raoni ''Raoni'' (also known as ''Raoni: The Fight for the Amazon'') is a 1978 French-Belgian documentary film directed by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux and Luiz Carlos Saldanha on the life of Raoni Metuktire. The film portrays issues surrounding the survival ...

. Arkan Simaan is member of the scientific patronage committee of

Association Française pour l'Information Scientifique Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

Works

All his books were originally written in French, and many of them have won awards. * (With Joëlle Fontaine) "L'Image du Monde des Babyloniens à Newton" (Adapt Editions, Paris, 1998) * "Cette sentence vous fait plus peur qu'à moi-même :

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmolog ...

" (Cahiers rationalistes, 2000) * "La science au péril de sa vie – les aventuriers de la mesure du monde" (Vuibert / Adapt, Paris, 2001.) In 2002 this book was awarded Prize of Special Book in Astronomy (Prix Spécial du livre d'astronomie) * "Vénus devant le soleil – comprendre et observer un phénomène astronomique" (Vuibert / Adapt, 2003). This book concerns the

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tr ...

across the Sun. * "L'Image du Monde de Newton à

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for d ...

" (Vuibert / Adapt, Paris, 2005) * "Le paradoxe de la science:

Fritz Haber Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydroge ...

" (Cahiers rationalistes n° 579, November 2005) * "L'Écuyer d' Henri le Navigateur" (Éditions Harmattan, Paris, 2007)

Articles

Articles and reviews for the rationalist journal Science et pseudo-sciences (in French)

Videos

* (fr
Arkan Simaan : La science en questions II série À Ciel ouvert
3min 43s
(fr) Arkan Simaan : La science en questions II série À Ciel ouvert
3min 58s

References

External links

Adapt Éditions

Futura-sciences

The transit of Venus across the Sun

The transit of Venus: a stroke of luck for teachers

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simaan, Arkan 1945 births French science writers Brazilian science writers Brazilian skeptics Science communicators Living people Brazilian emigrants to France Brazilian non-fiction writers Writers from Paris French historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Lebanese emigrants to Brazil French male novelists French male non-fiction writers University of São Paulo alumni