Paul Langevin | |
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Born | Paris, France | 23 January 1872
Died | 19 December 1946 Paris, France | (aged 74)
Alma mater | University of Cambridge Collège de France University of Paris (Sorbonne) ESPCI |
Known for | Langevin diamagnetism Langevin dynamics Langevin equation Langevin function Langevin metric Langevin observers Langevin recombination Langevin transducer Langevin's light clock Heisenberg–Langevin equations Twin paradox |
Awards | Hughes Medal (1915) Guthrie Lecture (1917) Copley Medal (1940) ForMemRS (1928)[1] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | ESPCI École Normale Supérieure |
Thesis | Research on ionized gases (1902) |
Doctoral advisors | Pierre Curie Joseph John Thomson Gabriel Lippmann |
Doctoral students | Louis de Broglie Léon Brillouin |
Signature | |
Paul Langevin[1] (/lænʒˈveɪn/;[2] French: [pɔl lɑ̃ʒvɛ̃]; 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 organization created after the 6 February 1934 far right riots. Being a public opponent of fascism in the 1930s resulted in his arrest and being held under house arrest by the Vichy government for most of World War II. Langevin was also president of the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1944 to 1946, having recently joined the French Communist Party.
He was a doctoral student of Pierre Curie and later a lover of widowed Marie Curie. He is also known for his two US patents with Constantin Chilowsky in 1916 and 1917 involving ultrasonic submarine detection.[3] He is entombed at the Panthéon.