Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

Background

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled until age 12. By 13, he had adopted adult reading habits and visited museums. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure, then became a research engineer at the Saclay center of the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, working on neutron scattering and magnetism under Anatole Abragam and Jacques Friedel.

He defended his Ph.D. in 1957 at the University of Paris. In 1961, he became assistant professor in Orsay and started the Orsay group on superconductors. He switched to studying liquid crystals in 1968.

In 1971, he became professor at the Collège de France and participated in STRASACOL on polymer physics. From 1980, he worked on interfacial problems, including wetting and adhesion, and later on granular materials and memory objects in the brain. He also had four children with physicist Françoise Brochard-Wyart, a former doctoral student and colleague.

Did You Know?

• He spent 27 months in the French Navy after a postdoctoral visit to Berkeley.
• He had seven children: three with his wife Anne-Marie Rouet and four with physicist Françoise Brochard-Wyart.