Maurice Ponte

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maurice Ponte (born April 5, 1902 in Voiron , † September 26, 1983 in Paris ) was a French physicist and radar pioneer in France.

Ponte attended the Prytanée militaire de La Flèche and studied from 1920 at the École normal supérieure (ENS) with the Agrégation in physics in 1924. He then researched X-ray diffraction with Maurice de Broglie and in London with William Henry Bragg . In 1925/26 he received a Rockefeller scholarship and from 1926 to 1929 Agrégé-preparateur at the ENS. From 1929 he worked under Yves Rocard at the radio tube manufacturer Radiotechnique and became laboratory manager at the Société française radio-électrique (SFR), a subsidiary of the Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF). From 1932 he continued to develop the magnetron there. This led to applications at sea (from 1934, with Henri Gutton , including on the passenger ship Normandie ) and in 1939 to work on a radar system for the air defense in Paris and in 1940 he traveled to London to hand over the prototype of their magnetron for radar applications. They flowed into the developments of John Turton Randall and Henri Boot in Birmingham.

From 1939 to 1951 he was a professor at the Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité, where he gave lectures on tube technology.

In 1950 he became General Director of CSF and in 1960 President. After the merger with Thomson in 1968, he retired.

In 1958 he became one of the twelve scientific advisers to the government of Charles de Gaulle in the Comité consultatif de la recherche scientifique et technique . He was involved in founding the Institut des hautes études scientifiques . In 1963 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences and he was President of the French Society for Spatial Studies.

In 1947 he received the Blondel Medal of the Société de l'électricité, de l'électronique et des technologies de l'information et de la communication, in 1956 the Prix Hughes of the Academie des Sciences and in 1964 the Prix Christophe Colomb. He was commander of the Legion of Honor , Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite and commander of the Palmes académiques .

He was president of the Société des Radioélectriciens in 1949 and of the Société Française des Electriciens in 1950. In 1954 he was Vice President of the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers).

Fonts

  • with Pierre Braillard: L'Électronique, Collections Microcosme “le Rayon de la science” no 1, Le Seuil, Paris, 1959
  • with Pierre Braillard: L'Informatique, Collections Microcosme “le Rayon de la science” no 31, Le Seuil, Paris, 1969

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Radar tutorial, history
  2. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 5, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Ponte, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French physicist and radar pioneer in France
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Voiron
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 1983
Place of death Paris