Paul Langevin
French physicist, philosopher of science and pedagogue (1872-1946) · France · Scientists · Died at 74
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Something wrong?A physicist who built the mathematics of random motion, co-invented sonar, had an affair with Marie Curie that scandalized Paris, and spent World War II under arrest for opposing fascism too loudly.
A life in dates
Photos 8
Paul Langevin Wellcome2
13-6-27, à la Sorbonne, exposition du travail des meilleurs ouvriers de France - btv1b53182634z_in_1897.jpg?width=1200)
Paul Langevin, french physician, Cambridge (UK) in 1897
1911 Solvay conference
Solvay conference 1913
EinsteinEhrenfestKamerlingh-OnnesWeiss
Third Solvay Conference, 1921_Langevi_Wellcome_V0028220.jpg?width=1200)
Lunch in honour of Albert Einstein, with (front row) Langevi Wellcome V0028220Awards
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Collaborator: Éliane MontelAbout this person
Paul Langevin studied under Pierre Curie, earning his doctorate before developing the Langevin equation - a framework for describing particle movement in fluid that still anchors statistical mechanics. After Pierre's death, Langevin became romantically involved with his widow Marie, a liaison that drew vicious public attention. During World War I he pivoted to applied work, filing two US patents with Constantin Chilowsky in 1916 and 1917 for ultrasonic submarine detection, early sonar technology. By the 1930s he was a founder of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, formed in response to the far-right riots of 6 February 1934. His vocal anti-fascism cost him: the Vichy government arrested him and held him under house arrest through most of World War II. He emerged to lead the Human Rights League from 1944 until his death in 1946, having joined the French Communist Party late in life. He lies in the Panthéon.
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