View source for Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

{{Short description|Nobel-laureate physicist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
| image             = Pierre-Gilles crop.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = De Gennes in 2006
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1932|10|24|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2007|5|18|1932|10|24|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Orsay]], [[France]]
| nationality       = [[France|French]]
| field             = [[Physics]]<br />[[Soft matter]]<br />[[Superconductivity]]
| work_institution  = {{Plainlist|
* [[École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris|ESPCI]] 
* [[Collège de France]]
* [[University of Paris XI]]}}
| alma_mater        = [[École Normale Supérieure]]<br />[[Paris-Saclay University]]
| thesis_title = Contribution à l'étude de la diffusion magnétique des neutrons
| thesis_year = 1957
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Francis Perrin (physicist)|Francis Perrin]]
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = Being the founder of [[soft matter|soft matter physics]]<br/>[[Landau–de Gennes theory]]<br/>[[Polymer physics]]<br />[[Reptation]]<br />[[Liquid crystalline elastomer]]<br />[[Bogoliubov_transformation#Applications_2|Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation]] <br/>de Gennes–Alexander theory<br/>Caroli–de Gennes–Matricon state<br/>Fisher–de Gennes scaling<br/>de Gennes–Kleman length
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
* [[Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize]] (1968)
* [[Bourke Award]] (1976)
* [[Racah Lectures in Physics|Racah Lecture]] (1976)
* [[Ampère Prize]] (1977)
* [[CNRS Gold Medal]] (1980)
* [[Gay-Lussac–Humboldt Prize]] (1983)
* [[Fellow of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]] (1984)<ref name=formemrs/>
* [[List of Fritz London Memorial Lectures|Fritz London Memorial Lecure]] (1985)
* [[Matteucci Medal]] (1987)
* [[Harvey Prize]] (1988)
* [[Lorentz Medal]] (1990)
* [[Wolf Prize]] (1990)
* [[Nobel Prize for Physics]] (1991)
* [[Onsager_Medal#Lectureship|Onsager Lecture]] (1997)
* [[Eringen Medal]] (1998)}}
| children          = 7, including [[Claire Wyart]]
}}
'''Pierre-Gilles de Gennes''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɛn|lang}}; 24 October 1932 &ndash; 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the [[Nobel Prize]] laureate in [[physics]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Joanny, Jean-François|author2=Pincus, Philip A.|title=Obituary: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|journal=Physics Today|date=August 2007|volume=60|issue=8|pages=71–72|doi=10.1063/1.2774111|bibcode = 2007PhT....60h..71J |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 9 December 1991 ''Soft Matter''</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070602182102/http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/31/stories/2007053102061100.htm An Obituary of Gennes in the Hindu.com]</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|last=Ajdari
|first=Armand
|date=July 2007
|title=Physics. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932-2007)
|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]
|volume=317
|issue=5837
|pages=466
| pmid = 17656713
|doi = 10.1126/science.1146688
|s2cid=118920054
 }}</ref>

==Education and early life==
He was born in [[Paris]], [[France]], and was [[homeschooling|home-schooled]] to the age of 12. By the age of 13, he had adopted adult reading habits and was visiting museums.<ref name="LifeinScience">{{Cite book| doi=10.1142/8182| title=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes: A Life in Science| publisher=World Scientific Publishing | isbn= 978-981-4355-25-4| year=2011| last1=Plévert| first1=Laurence}}</ref>
Later, de Gennes studied at the [[École Normale Supérieure]]. After leaving the ''École'' in 1955, he became a research engineer at the [[CEA Saclay|Saclay center]] of the [[Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique]], working mainly on [[neutron scattering]] and magnetism, with advice from [[Anatole Abragam]] and [[Jacques Friedel]]. He defended his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in 1957 at the [[University of Paris]].<ref>[http://www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/ins_dis/pierregilles_de_gennes.htm Selected bibliography on the College de France website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227073302/http://www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/ins_dis/pierregilles_de_gennes.htm |date=2010-12-27 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.canalc2.tv/video.asp?idvideo=5667 Nature des Objets de mémoire : le cas de l'olfaction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017142615/http://www.canalc2.tv/video.asp?idVideo=5667|date=2007-10-17}} conférence novembre 2006.{{in lang|fr}}</ref>

==Career and research==
In 1959, he was a [[postdoctoral research]] visitor with [[Charles Kittel]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], and then spent 27 months in the [[French Navy]]. In 1961, he was assistant professor in [[Paris-Sud 11 University|Orsay]] and soon started the Orsay group on [[superconductors]]. In 1968, he switched to studying [[liquid crystal]]s.<ref>David Dunmur & Tim Sluckin (2011) ''Soap, Science, and Flat-screen TVs: a history of liquid crystals'', pp 183&ndash;8, [[Oxford University Press]] {{ISBN|978-0-19-954940-5}}</ref>

In 1971, he became professor at the [[Collège de France]], and participated in STRASACOL (a joint action of [[Strasbourg]], Saclay and ''Collège de France'') on polymer physics. From 1980 on, he became interested in interfacial problems: the dynamics of wetting and [[adhesion]].

He worked on [[granular material]]s and on the nature of memory objects in the brain.

==Awards and honours==
Awarded the [[Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize]] in 1968.

He was awarded the [[Harvey Prize]], [[Lorentz Medal]] and [[Wolf Prize]] in 1988 and 1990. In 1991, he received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]. He was then director of the [[École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris]] (ESPCI), a post he held from 1976 until his retirement in 2002.

P.G. de Gennes has also received the [[F. Albert Cotton#F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research|F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research]] of the [[American Chemical Society]] in 1997, the [[Holweck Prize]] from the joint French and British Physical Society; the Ampere Prize, French Academy of Science; the gold medal from the French CNRS; the Matteuci Medal, Italian Academy; the [[Harvey Prize]], Israel; and polymer awards from both APS and ACS.

He was awarded the above-mentioned Nobel Prize for discovering that "methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers".

The [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] awards the [[De Gennes Prize]] biennially, in his honour.<ref name=RSC2014>{{cite web|title=de Gennes Prize|url=http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/deGennesPrize/Index.asp|website=Royal Society of Chemistry}}</ref> He was elected a [[List of fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1984|Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1984]].<ref name=formemrs>{{cite web|title=Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660-2015|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185820/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|archive-date=2015-10-15|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Joanny|first1=Jean-François|last2=Cates|first2=Michael|date=2019|title=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. 24 October 1932—18 May 2007|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=66|pages=143–158|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2018.0033|s2cid=127231807|doi-access=free}}</ref> He was awarded [[A. Cemal Eringen]] [[Eringen Medal|Medal]] in 1998.

==Personal life==
[[File:Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.jpg|thumb|left|De Gennes in his office at [[ESPCI Paris]], 1988|alt=]]
He married Anne-Marie Rouet <ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Brochard-Wyart|first=Françoise|date=July 2007|title=Obituary: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007)|journal=Nature|volume=448|issue=7150|pages=149|doi=10.1038/448149a|issn=1476-4687|bibcode=2007Natur.448..149B|s2cid=35082004|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="LifeinScience" /> (born in 1933) in June 1954.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|title=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|date=2019-07-11|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierre-Gilles_de_Gennes&oldid=160829992|work=Wikipédia|language=fr|access-date=2019-08-08}}</ref> They remained married until his death and had three children together: Christian (born 9 December 1954), Dominique (born 6 May 1956) and Marie-Christine (born 11 January 1958).<ref name=":1" />

He also has four children with physicist [[Françoise Brochard-Wyart]] (born in 1944) who was one of his former doctoral students and then colleague and co-author.<ref name=":0" /> The children are: [[Claire Wyart]] (born 16 February 1977),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Spinal Sensory Signalling {{!}} Development, Locomotion & Posture, Pathology|url=https://wyartlab.org/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=wyartlab.org|language=en-GB}}</ref> [[Matthieu Wyart]] (born 24 May 1978),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Prof. Matthieu Wyart|url=https://www.epfl.ch/labs/pcsl/prof-matthieu-wyart/|access-date=2021-07-18|website=www.epfl.ch|language=en-GB}}</ref> Olivier Wyart (born 3 August 1984) and Marc de Gennes (born 16 January 1991).<ref name=":1" />

Professors [[John Goodby]] and [[George William Gray|George Gray]] noted in an obituary:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/jun/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries|title=Obituary: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|last1=Goodby|first1=John|date=2007-06-04|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-08-08|last2=Gray|first2=George|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> "Pierre was a man of great charm and humour, capable of making others believe they, too, were wise. We will remember him as an inspirational lecturer and teacher, an authority on Shakespeare, an expert skier who attended conference lectures appropriately attired with skis to hand, and, robed in red, at the Bordeaux liquid crystal conference in 1978, took great delight in being inaugurated as a Vignoble de St Émilion."

In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the [[Humanism and Its Aspirations|Humanist Manifesto]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III/Notable_Signers | title=Notable Signers | publisher=American Humanist Association | website=Humanism and Its Aspirations | access-date=1 October 2012}}</ref>

On 22 May 2007, his death was made public as official messages and tributes poured in.<ref name=LifeinScience/>

==Publications==

===Books===
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Superconductivity of metals and alloys|year=1966|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=978-0738201016}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, [[Jacques Prost]]|title=The physics of liquid crystals|orig-year=1974|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0198517856}} 
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Scaling concepts in polymer physics|year=1979|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0801412035}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Introduction to polymer dynamics|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521388498}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Jacques Badoz|title=Fragile Objects: Soft Matter, Hard Science, and the Thrill of Discovery|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1461275282}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Soft Interfaces: The 1994 Dirac Memorial Lecture|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521020350}} 
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Simple Views on Condensed Matter: Expanded Edition|year=1998|publisher=WSPC|isbn=978-9810232702}}
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, [[Françoise Brochard-Wyart]], David Quéré|title=Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena: Drops, Bubbles, Pearls, Waves|year=2003|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0387005928}} 
* {{cite book|author=Pierre-Gilles de Gennes|title=Petit Point: A Candid Portrait on the Aberrations of Science|year=2004|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-9812560117}} 
{{div col end}}

== See also ==

* [[History of ESPCI Paris]]
* [[ESPCI Paris]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 9 December 1991 ''Soft Matter''
{{Commons category|Pierre-Gilles de Gennes}}

{{Wolf Prize in Physics}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1991 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gennes, Pierre Gilles de}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley staff]]
[[Category:Experimental physicists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:French physicists]]
[[Category:Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:French Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Lorentz Medal winners]]
[[Category:Wolf Prize in Physics laureates]]
[[Category:Academic staff of ESPCI Paris]]
[[Category:Liquid crystals]]
[[Category:Lycée Saint-Louis alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science]]
[[Category:Scientists from Paris]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Paris-Saclay University people]]
[[Category:Paris-Saclay University alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Matteucci Medal]]
[[Category:French materials scientists]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Société Française de Physique]]