Pierre Aigrain

Pierre Raoul Aigrain (born September 28, 1924 in Poitiers , † October 30, 2002 ) was a French physicist and State Secretary for Research under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing . He worked in the fields of solid state physics and semiconductor technology .

Life

Aigrain began training at an École Navale in October 1942 . Due to the self-sinking of the Toulon fleet , he had to break off his training and was sent to the same after the liberation of France by the United States to become a naval aviator. There he moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh , where he earned a doctorate in physics. His knowledge of electronics brought him back to France in 1948, where he joined Yves Rocard's group for semiconductor technology at the ÉNS at the suggestion of Yves Rocard .

In 1952 he became a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Lille and later worked in the laboratory for physics at the École normal supérieure . In 1954 he became a lecturer and then in 1957 a professor without a chair at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Paris-Diderot in Paris . From 1958 he became a professor and holder of the chair for electrical engineering .

From 1961 to 1965 he was Director of Defense Research and 1965–67 Director General of Higher Education. The reform, for which he was jointly responsible, to facilitate access to French universities in 1966 (Fouchet-Aigrain reform) is seen as a major cause of the events in May 1968 (student unrest). 1968–1973 he was head of the French government's research administration. In 1973 he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States as a Henry Luce Professor for a year . After his return he became a consultant for several industrial companies, including Thomson-CSF . From April 6, 1978 to May 22, 1981 he was Secretary of State for Research under Prime Minister Raymond Barre . He then campaigned for increased scientific cooperation within Europe. In 1991, through his consulting work for Thomson-CSF, he was involved in the frigate affair in Taiwan , in which France sold six stealth frigates of the La Fayette class to Taiwan .

In 1961 Aigrain was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1974 to the National Academy of Sciences and 1981 to the American Philosophical Society . In 1988 he was appointed a member of the French Académie des Sciences .

literature

• Frederick Seitz : Pierre Aigrain . In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . tape 149 , no. 1 , March 2005, p. 83-87 , JSTOR : 4598911 .

Web links

• Philippe Nozières: In memoriam Pierre AIGRAIN. Académie des sciences, November 2002 (French). 
• Philippe Nozières: Discours prononcé en séance publique en hommage a Pierre Aigrain. (PDF) Académie des sciences, April 6, 2004 . 
• Sylvestre Huet: Décès du physicien Pierre Aigrain. In: La Liberation. November 5, 2002 (French). 
• Pierre Baruch: 1950-1960: Age d'or des laboratoire? La physique à l'Ecole Normale Supérieure . In: Karl Eibl, Volker Deubel, Fotis Jannidis (ed.): Yearbook for Computer Philology . 1999, p. 17 (French, inria.fr [PDF; 489 kB ]).