Maurice Françon (15 June 1913 – 11 August 1996) was a French engineer, physicist and academic.

Early life

Françon was born on rue de Littré in the

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in ...

on 15 June 1913. His father was related to the Edouard Herriot's family and worked as a

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

at the Physical Research Laboratory of the Sorbonne managed by

Gabriel Lippmann Gabriel Lippmann ( ; 16 August 1845 – 12 July 1921) was a French physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 "for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference". Early life and educa ...

. Françon graduated with a '' licence ès sciences physiques'' from the Faculté des Sciences de Paris. In 1938, he entered

SupOptique The Institut d'optique Graduate School ("Institute of optics"), nicknamed SupOptique or IOGS, is a graduate school of Paris-Saclay University and ParisTech. History Armand de Gramont, a rich industrialist and friend of Marcel Proust, was the ma ...

as an engineer. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was sent to

Dunkerque Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

in the North of France and escaped to England on a civilian ship on June 2nd, 1940.

Career

His graduate studies were mainly related to

physiological Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

. Françon was employed by the SupOptique's Laboratory at

Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer (, "Saint-Cyr-on-Sea"; Provençal Occitan: ''Sant Ceri'') is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, on the departmental bor ...

. After the Nazi invasion in the

Zone libre The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered b ...

, Françon returned to Paris on Boulevard

Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which wa ...

and began to write his thesis titled ''Vision in an instrument tainted with spherical aberration'' (in french: Vision dans un instrument entaché d'aberration sphérique) under the supervision of Pierre Fleury. that he submit in 1945 at the Sorbonne before a jury chaired by

Charles Fabry Marie Paul Auguste Charles Fabry (; 11 June 1867 – 11 December 1945) was a French physicist working on optics. Together with Alfred Pérot he invented the Fabry–Pérot interferometer. He is also one of the co-discoverers of the ozone l ...

. He became head of the Science faculty and in charge of practical work at the

Institut d'optique Graduate School The Institut d'optique Graduate School ("Institute of optics"), nicknamed SupOptique or IOGS, is a graduate school of Paris-Saclay University and ParisTech. History Armand de Gramont, a rich industrialist and friend of Marcel Proust, was the ma ...

with

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 ...

Burial

Maurice Françon is buried in

Montparnasse Cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement of Paris, 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,00 ...

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 ...

References

1913 births 1996 deaths 20th-century French engineers 20th-century French physicists French optical physicists {{France-physicist-stub