Jean Baptiste Perrin

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For the tutor and educational author, see
Jean Georges Perrin
.
Jean Baptiste Perrin
École Normale Supérieure
University of Paris
Signature

Jean Baptiste Perrin

Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926.[2]

Biography

Early years

Born in

German occupation of France during World War II
.

Ioan Cantacuzino (left) with Perrin in 1931

Research and achievements

Jean Perrin in 1908

In 1895, Perrin showed that cathode rays were of negative electric charge in nature. He determined Avogadro's number (now known as the

thermonuclear reactions of hydrogen
.

After

long struggle regarding the question of the physical reality of molecules.[3]

Perrin was the author of a number of books and dissertations. Most notable of his publications were: "Rayons cathodiques et rayons X"; "Les Principes"; "Electrisation de contact"; "Réalité moléculaire"; "Matière et Lumière"; "Lumière et Reaction chimique".

Perrin was also the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Joule Prize of the Royal Society in 1896 and the La Caze Prize of the

Order of Léopold
(Belgium).

In 1919, Perrin proposed that

mass-energy equivalence of Einstein implies that the nuclear fusion (4 H → He) could liberate sufficient energy to make stars shine for billions of years.[4] A similar theory was first proposed by American chemist William Draper Harkins in 1915.[5][6] It remained for Hans Bethe and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker to determine the detailed mechanism of stellar nucleosynthesis during the 1930s.[7]

In 1927, he founded the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique together with chemist André Job and physiologist André Mayer. Funding was provided by Edmond James de Rothschild.[8] In 1937, Perrin established the Palais de la Découverte, a science museum in Paris.

Perrin is considered the founding father of the National Centre for Scientific Research (

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)). Following a petition by Perrin signed by over 80 scientists, among them eight Nobel Prize laureates, the French education minister set up the Conseil Supérieur de la Recherche Scientifique (French National Research Council) in April 1933. In 1936, Perrin, now an undersecretary for research, founded the Service Central de la Recherche Scientifique (French Central Agency for Scientific Research).[8] Both institutions were merged under the CNRS umbrella on October 19, 1939.[9]

Autochrome portrait by Auguste Léon, 1918

His notable students include Pierre Victor Auger. Jean Perrin was the father of Francis Perrin, also a physicist.[10]

Personal life and death

Perrin was an atheist and a socialist.[11][12] He was an officer in the engineer corps during World War I.

After the death of Perrin's wife Henriette in 1938, Nine Choucroun (1896–1978), founder of the Nine Choucroun Prize, became Perrin's partner. In June 1940, when the Germans invaded France, Choucroun and Perrin escaped to Casablanca on the ocean liner Massilia, with part of the French government. In December 1941, they boarded the SS Excambion to New York City, arriving on December 23.[13]

Perrin died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on 17 April 1942 at the age of 71.

After the War, in 1948, his remains were transported back to France by the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and buried in the Panthéon.

Works

Atomes, 1913
  • Les Principes. Exposé de thermodynamique (1901)/Principles of thermodynamics
  • Traité de chimie physique. Les principes (1903)/Physical chemistry principles
  • Les Preuves de la réalité moléculaire (1911)/Evidences of molecular reality
  • Atomes (in French). Paris: Alcan. 1913.
  • Les Atomes (1913)/The Atoms
  • Matière et lumière (1919)/Matter and light
  • En l'honneur de Madame Pierre Curie et de la découverte du Radium (1922)/ In honor of Mrs Pierre Curie and the discovery of Radium
  • Les Éléments de la physique (1929)/Elements of physics
  • L'Orientation actuelle des sciences (1930)/Current orientation of sciences
  • Les Formes chimiques de transition (1931)/Transition chemical forms
  • La Recherche scientifique (1933)/Scientific research
  • Cours de chimie. 1ère partie. Chimie générale et métalloïdes (1935)/ Chemistry courses: general chemistry and metalloids
  • Grains de matière et grains de lumière (1935)/Grains of matter and grains of light
    • Existence des grains/Existence of grains
    • Structure des atomes/Structure of atoms
    • Noyaux des atomes/Kernels of atoms
    • Transmutations provoquées/Induced transmutations
  • Paul Painlevé: l'homme (1936)/Paul Painlevé: the man
  • L'Organisation de la recherche scientifique en France (1938)/The organisation of scientific research in France
  • À la surface des choses (1940–1941)/At the surface of things
    • Masse et gravitation (1940)/Mass and gravitation
    • Lumière (1940)/Light
    • Espace et temps (1940)/Space and time
    • Forces et travail (1940)/Forces and work
    • Relativité (1941)/Relativity
    • Électricité (1941)/Electricity
    • L'énergie (1941)/Energy
    • Évolution (1941)/Evolution
  • L'Âme de la France éternelle (1942)/The soul of eternal France
  • Pour la Libération (1942)/For Liberation
  • La Science et l'Espérance (1948)/Science and hope
  • Oeuvres scientifiques de Jean Perrin (1950)/Scientific works of Jean Perrin

References

  1. S2CID 123521634
    .
  2. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1926". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  3. ISBN 0-521-54008-9
    . Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  4. ^ Why the Stars Shine D.Selle, Guidestar (Houston Astronomical Society), October 2012, pp. 6–8
  5. ISBN 81-208-0698-0
    .
  6. ^ Robert S. Mulliken (1975). "William Draper Harkins 1873–1951" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs. 47. National Academy of Sciences: 48–81.
  7. ^ John North, Cosmos: An Illustrated History of Astronomy and Cosmology (University of Chicago Press, p. 545)
  8. ^
    CNRS
    le journal. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  9. CNRS
    . Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  10. ^ Marcel Froissart. "Professeurs disparus: Hommage à Francis Perrin". Collège de France (in French). Retrieved 24 May 2023. Fils de Jean PERRIN, Prix Nobel de Physique en 1926.
  11. ISBN 978-3-540-67779-6
    . Jean and Francis Perrin held similar political and philosophical ideas. Both were socialists and atheists.
  12. ISSN 0016-1071
    .
  13. ^ Diane Dosso, " Le plan de sauvetage des scientifiques français, New York, 1940–1942 ", Revue de synthèse, Vol. 127, Nr. 2, octobre 2006, pp. 429–451 (in French)

External links

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