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Authorised form of nameGennes; Pierre-Gilles de (1932 - 2007)
Other forms of namePierre-Gilles
Other forms of surnamede Gennes
Dates1932 - 2007
NationalityFrench
Place of birthParis
Date of birth24/10/1932
Date of death18/05/2007
ActivityEducation:
Attended the Ecole Normale Superiore in Paris
Career:
After graaduating he began research on neutron scattering and magnetis at the Saclay centre of the Commisariat a l'Energie Atomique, taking a doctorate in 1957. In 1959 he studied with the solid state physicist Charles Kittel at the University of California, Berkeley. After 27 months in the French navy, in 1961 he was appointed assistant professor of Physics at the University of Paris , Orsay, where he founded a research group studying superconductors. In 1968 he switched to studying liquyid crystakls, somehow managing to continue his research during the student unrest that paralysed other laboratories. Became professor at the Colege de France ( 1971) where he led research on 0lymers describing how they moved and evolved. This research made it possible for scientists better to determine and control polymer properties. Director of the Ecole Superiore de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (1976 till retirement in 2002). During the 1980's he developed an interest in the pysical and chemical dynamics invlved in the wetting of surfaces by lliquids, analysing why water adheres to some but tends to be repelled by other surfaces - eg grapeskins. The research had a highly procatical application for wine producers, enabling the production of fungicide sprays which cover the whole grape instead of slipping off to form droplets at the base of the fruit. The commercial spin-offs from his work on liquid crystals led to a multi billion dollar international industry, and he was known to regret the fact that he and other theoretical scientists had derived little financial reward from intellectual property rights.
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Physics) 1991
Membership categoryForeign Member
Date of election28/06/1984
Age at election51
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/68972558
CodeNA4086
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
IM/001113De Gennes, Pierre-Gilles1998
EC/1984/41Gennes, Pierre-Gilles de: certificate of election to the Royal Society1983
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