P.G. de Gennes, 74, Discovered Liquid Crystals
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French scientist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, who laid the scientific groundwork for the liquid crystal diodes that help the modern world keep tabs on virutally everything, died Friday in Orsay, a suburb of Paris. He was 74.
De Gennes was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991 for breakthrough work on liquid crystals, which paradoxically has the properties of both a liquid and a solid.
On awarding the prize, the jury called de Gennes the “Isaac Newton of our time.”
De Gennes rejected the comparison with the English scientist, chalking the description up to the “Nordic lyricism” of the Stockholm-based award’s jury, French media reported at the time.
De Gennes was born in Paris on October 24, 1932. He was home-schooled by his mother and doctor father in his early years, and later attended Paris’ elite Ecole Normale Superieure university. After graduating, he began research on atomic energy and magnetism.
He later worked on a wide variety of problems, including figuring out new ways to protect grapes from predators based on the physics of grape skins.
He was hailed at his death by the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
