Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932-2007), French physicist and winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on polymers (molecular compounds characterized by long chains of repeating units).

Born in Paris, France, de Gennes completed his undergraduate work at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and received his Ph.D. degree in research science from the Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Saclay in 1959. In 1961 he accepted a position as professor of solid-state physics at the University of Paris, Orsay, a post he held for ten years. He became a professor at the Collège de France in Paris in 1971. In 1976 de Gennes was appointed director of the École de Physique et Chimie in Paris, and in 1988 he became the science director for chemical physics at Rhone-Poulenc, one of the largest chemical companies in France.

De Gennes analyzed the characteristics of polymers by comparing them to simpler systems like magnets and liquid crystals. Once he discovered that these simpler systems shared mathematical properties with the more complex polymers, he was able to show, for example, that the thickness of the polymer chain depends on its length. Understanding the fundamental nature of these complex substances provided insight into how molecules are arranged in other substances ranging from super glue to liquid helium. This research also helped scientists manipulate important properties of these substances to get the best results when designing new molecules.

De Gennes founded the STRASACOL, a joint project between physicists and chemists from Strasbourg, Saclay, and the Collège de France for the study of polymers. He was also the author of several books, including The Physics of Liquid Crystals (1974), Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys (1966), and Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics (1979), considered classic texts in the field.