__NOTOC__ Maurice de Broglie, 6th

Duke of Broglie The House of Broglie (, also ; , or ) is a distinguished French noble family, originally Piedmontese, who migrated to France in the year 1643. Members of this family bore the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, granted to them in 1759 by ...

(27 April 1875 – 14 July 1960) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. His younger brother was the theoretical physicist

Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave nature of elec ...

Biography

Early years

De Broglie was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, to Victor de Broglie and Pauline de La Forest d'Armaillé (1851–1928). Pauline's parents were Louis de La Forest d'Armaillé, Comte d'Armaillé and

Marie Célestine Amélie d'Armaillé Marie Célestine Amélie d'Armaillé (née, de Ségur; known as the Comtesse d'Armaillé; 8 January 1830 – 7 December 1918) was a French writer, biographer, and historian. In 1887, she was a recipient of the Montyon Prize from the Académie Fran ...

, the writer. In 1901, he was married to Camille Bernou de Rochetaillée (1888–1966) in Paris. They had one daughter, Laure, born on 17 November 1904, who died, aged six, on 12 June 1911. He acceded to the title of

duc de Broglie The House of Broglie (, also ; , or ) is a distinguished French noble family, originally Piedmontese, who migrated to France in the year 1643. Members of this family bore the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, granted to them in 1759 by ...

on his father's death in 1906. He died on 14 July 1960 in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

. His only child having died almost a half-century before, his brother

Louis Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also ...

succeeded him as duke. Having graduated from naval officer's school, Maurice de Broglie spent nine years in the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

, serving on a gunboat at

Bizerte Bizerte (, ) is the capital and largest city of Bizerte Governorate in northern Tunisia. It is the List of northernmost items, northernmost city in Africa, located north of the capital Tunis. It is also known as the last town to remain under Fr ...

and in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Squadron. While serving, he became interested in physics, and began doing research on

electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

. De Broglie defied his family's wishes and left the navy in 1904 to pursue a scientific career. He studied under

Paul Langevin Paul Langevin (23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the '' Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes'', an anti-fascist ...

at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

, receiving his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in 1908.

Career

De Broglie made advances in the study of

X-ray diffraction X-ray diffraction is a generic term for phenomena associated with changes in the direction of X-ray beams due to interactions with the electrons around atoms. It occurs due to elastic scattering, when there is no change in the energy of the waves. ...

and

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he worked on

radio communications Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected t ...

for the navy. After the war, he resumed his research at a large laboratory in his home. He occasionally collaborated with his younger brother Louis, who followed his professional lead and was training as a physicist, and they coauthored a paper in 1921. After Louis de Broglie's rise to prominence in the 1920s, building on some of their shared research, the elder de Broglie physicist continued his own research. While Louis was primarily a theoretician, Maurice's focus was mainly experimental. De Broglie became a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1924, and in 1934 was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, replacing the historian

Pierre de La Gorce Pierre de La Gorce (19 June 1846, Vannes – 2 January 1934) was a French magistrate, lawyer and historian, as well as a member of the Académie française. He wrote books about the Second French Republic, the Second French Empire The Sec ...

. He had the unique honor of welcoming his own brother into the academy on the latter's induction. In 1942 he succeeded his mentor, assuming Langevin's chair in physics at the

. He was also elected to the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

on 23 May 1940, having received the Royal Society's

Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded by the Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. T ...

in 1928.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Broglie, Maurice De 1875 births 1960 deaths Academic staff of the Collège de France

Maurice Maurice may refer to: *Maurice (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name Places * or Mauritius, an island country in the Indian Ocean *Maurice, Iowa, a city *Maurice, Louisiana, a village *Maurice River, a trib ...

Foreign members of the Royal Society French Navy officers 20th-century French physicists Members of the Académie Française Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour French experimental physicists Scientists from Paris