| RefNo | EC/1984/41 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XXI, 177 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Gennes, Pierre-Gilles de: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1983 |
| Description | Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for many major innovations in theoretical physics: in magnetism, superconductivity, liquid crystals, polymers, mixed fluid flows. Each of these fields has become richer by his contributions which are continuing in full spate.
Citation for P.G. de Gennes
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes is the leading innovator in French theoretical physics and a world leader in the study of condensed matter.
He has made major contributions to a series of different fields, starting with magnetism where he established the modern form of the interaction between magnetic ions (This work is not as well known as contemporary derivations in the U.S. presumably because of its publication originally in France).
He next made substantial contributions to the theory of superconductivity in particular with aspects of the implications of the BCS theories.
His work on liquid crystals which followed this period was incorporated into a famous monograph on that subject and can be said to be the modern foundation of the development of that field.
Although he retains an interest in liquid crystal polymers, he turned to flexible polymers and has made a substantial and continuing contribution to that area. Amongst many results there are two particularly fruitful contributions. Firstly the recognition that it is possible to find configurations of polymer solutions which are analogues of critical phenomena and therefore permit scaling arguments to be used. Secondly that the dynamics of concentrated polymer systems will be dominated be [sic] the random creeping of the polymer down the tubes formed by the others, the process of reptation.
Lately he has been considering the dynamical processes involved in dispersed two phase flow such as in micro emulsions with some notable results.
His work is characterized by simplicity but with an underlying understanding of the most powerful methods of modern theoretical physics. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA4086 | Gennes; Pierre-Gilles de (1932 - 2007) | 1932 - 2007 |