Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (born October 24, 1932) is a French physicist and Nobel laureate.

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He was born in Paris, France and was home-schooled to the age of 12. Later, Gennes studied at the ?cole Normale Sup?rieure. After leaving the ?cole in 1955, he became a research engineer at the Saclay center of the Commissariat ? l'?nergie Atomique, working mainly on neutron scattering and magnetism, with advice from A. Abragam and J. Friedel. He defended his Ph.D. in 1957.

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In 1959, he was a postdoctoral visitor with C. Kittel at the University of California at Berkeley, and then spent 27 months in the French Navy. In 1961, he was assistant professor in Orsay and soon started the Orsay group on supraconductors. In 1968, he switched to studying liquid crystals.

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In 1971, he became professor at the Coll?ge de France, and participated to STRASCOL (a joint action of Strasbourg, Saclay and Coll?ge de France) on polymer physics. From 1980 on, he became interested in interfacial problems : the dynamics of wetting and adhesion.

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In 1991, he received the Nobel Prize in physics. He was then director of the ?cole Sup?rieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris.

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More recently, he worked on granular materials and on the nature of memory objects in the brain.

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October 24: October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining....

1932: 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday....

French: French can refer to more than one article:...

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