Hélène Langevin-Joliot
| Hélène Langevin-Joliot | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 September 1927 Paris, France |
| Residence | France |
| Citizenship | France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | CNRS |
Hélène Langevin-Joliot (born 17 September 1927) is a French nuclear physicist. She was educated at the Institut de physique nucléaire (English: Institute of Nuclear Physics) at Orsay, a laboratory which was set up by her parents Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. She is a member of the French government's advisory committee.[1] Currently, she is a professor of nuclear physics at the Institute of Nuclear Physics at the University of Paris and a Director of Research at the CNRS. She is also known for her work in actively encouraging women to pursue careers in scientific fields.[2][3] She is Chairman of the panel that awards the Marie Curie Excellence award, a prize given to outstanding European researchers.[4] She is President of the French Rationalist Union.[5]
[edit] Family
Hélène is of Polish descent, on her maternal grandmother's side.
Her husband, Michel Langevin, was grandson of the famous physicist Paul Langevin (who had an affair with the widowed Marie Curie, Hélènes grandmother, in 1910) and was also a nuclear physicist at the Institute, and her son, Yves (b. 1951), is an astrophysicist.[6][7]
Langevin-Joliot is from a family of well-known scientists. Her grandparents were Marie and Pierre Curie, famous for their study of radioactivity, for which they won a Nobel Prize in physics with Henri Becquerel in 1903. Marie Curie was also the first person to win a Nobel Prize in two sciences, the second being for chemistry (1911) with her discovery of radium and polonium.
Similarly, Hélène Langevin-Joliot's parents won a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. Pierre Joliot is her brother and a noted biophysicist who has made contributions to the study of photosynthesis.
Due to her family's legacy, Langevin-Joliot regularly grants interviews and gives talks about their history. [3][6] Her knowledge of her family's history led to her writing the introduction to Radiation and Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream, including a brief history of the Curies.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ "Rencontre avec Hélène Langevin-Joliot" (in French). canslup.unilim.fr. http://www.canalsup.unilim.fr/emission.php?id=94&codeEmission=rencontre. Retrieved 2010-02-03. Google translation
- ^ "Madam [sic] Curie's Legacy". best.me.berkely.edu. http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/e24/curie.html. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ^ a b "An Interview with Hélène Langevin-Joliot, the Granddaughter of Pierre and Marie Curie". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927195550/http://www.info-france-usa.org/publi/nff/0305/reg.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
- ^ "First EU Marie Curie Awards in recognition of world-class achievements in European research". http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/news/headline20_en.html. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
- ^ "Union rationaliste – Qui sommes-nous ?" (in French). union-rationaliste.org. http://www.union-rationaliste.org/index.php/Qui-sommes-nous.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ a b "Marie & Pierre Curie’s granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, visits the United States". Eurekalert.org. http://www.eurekalert.org/features/doe/2003-07/djna-mp071103.php. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
- ^ "Family Records". http://www.links.org/links-cgi/readged?/home/camilla/links-data+c-joliet367+1-1-0-1. Retrieved 2007-01-24.[dead link]
- ^ "Radiation and modern life Fulfilling Marie Curie’s dream". http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1359067. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
