Georges Lemaître

Belgian astrophysicist and Catholic priest (1894–1966)

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Fame61.5
Momentum0.0
Academics rank#221
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Lived 1894–1966, aged 72

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Wikipedia
74 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1894–1966
Aged 72
Awards
9
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He was a Belgian priest who first argued the universe is expanding and proposed what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom" — the seed of what we now call the Big Bang.

Biography

About

Georges Lemaître studied engineering, math, physics, and philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain and was ordained a priest in 1923. His cardinal mentor encouraged the science, sending him to work with Arthur Eddington at Cambridge and then to Harvard and MIT. Back at Louvain as a professor from 1927, Lemaître connected the recession of galaxies to Einstein's field equations, producing the first formulation of Big Bang theory. In the 1930s he pioneered computer use in physics and showed with Manuel Sandoval Vallarta that cosmic rays carry electric charge. He also argued for a positive…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Georges Lemaître

Georges Lemaître

said19 Feb 1933

I was interested in truth from the point of view of salvation just as much as in truth from the point of view of scientific certainty.

— AIKMAN, Duncan, New York Times Magazine, February 19, 1933, p. 3

Georges Lemaître

said19 Feb 1933

There is no conflict between science and religion.

— New York Times, February 19, 1933

Georges Lemaître

said1931

We want a fireworks theory of evolution. The last two thousand million years are slow evolution: they are the smoke and ashes of bright but very rapid fireworks.

— Article in Nature, 1931, vol 128, page 704

Georges Lemaître

saidundated