Louis Néel

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Louis Néel (1970)

Louis Eugène Felix Néel (born November 22, 1904 in Lyon , † November 17, 2000 in Brive-la-Gaillarde ) was a French physicist . Neel was awarded in 1970 the physics - Nobel Prize "for his fundamental achievements and discoveries in the field of antiferromagnetism and ferromagnetism , the important insights in the solid state physics have led."

Néel attended high school in Lyon (Lycée du Parc) and studied at the École normal supérieure and received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg . In 1937 he became a professor in Strasbourg and from 1946 to 1976 he was a professor at the University of Grenoble , where he was director of the Polytechnic Institute from 1971 to 1976 and of the Center for Nuclear Research from 1956 to 1971.

He discovered the phenomenon of antiferromagnetism around 1930 . The Néel temperature and the Néel wall are named after him. The Néel temperature is the critical temperature above which an antiferromagnet becomes paramagnetic (similar to the Curie temperature for ferromagnets). His investigations into weak ferromagnetism in certain rocks formed the basis for later investigations into paleomagnetism . In 1948 he discovered the phenomenon of ferrimagnetism .

In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received the André Blondel Medal in 1948, the Holweck Prize in 1952 , the Prix ​​des trois physiciens in 1963 , the CNRS gold medal in 1965 and the Félix Robin Prix in 1938 . In 1957 he was president of the Société française de physique .

He became a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1940, Commander in 1958 and Grand Officer in 1966 and received its Grand Cross in 1974. He received the Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite , the Croix de guerre with palm trees (1940) and was commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (1957). He was a member of the Académie des Sciences (1953), the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina - National Academy of Sciences (1964), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1966) and the Royal Society ( Foreign Member , 1966).

The Louis Néel Medal of the European Geosciences Union is named after him.

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personal data
SURNAME Néel, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Néel, Louis Eugène Felix (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French physicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 2000
Place of death Brive-la-Gaillarde