Frederik Joliot-Curie French physicist, Nobel laureate 1935 Date of Birth: 19.03.1900 Country: France

Biography of Frédéric Joliot-Curie

Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French physicist and Nobel laureate. He was born in Paris and attended the Lycée Lakanal, a provincial boarding school, in 1910. However, after the death of his father seven years later, he returned to Paris and became a student at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris.

Following his passion for scientific research, Joliot-Curie enrolled in the Higher School of Physics and Chemistry in Paris in 1920. Three years later, he graduated at the top of his class. Although his engineering degree primarily focused on the practical application of chemistry and physics, his interests lied in fundamental scientific research, greatly influenced by one of his teachers, French physicist Paul Langevin.

After completing his mandatory military service, Joliot-Curie followed Langevin's advice and became an assistant to Marie Curie at the Radium Institute of the University of Paris. In 1925, he began his new role at the institute, where he continued to study chemistry and physics while working as a preparatory. The following year, he married Irène Curie, the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, who also worked at the institute. Joliot-Curie obtained a licentiate degree, equivalent to a master's degree in science, and in 1930, he earned his doctorate for his research on the electrochemical properties of the radioactive element polonium.

In 1935, Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie jointly received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their synthesis of new radioactive elements. In his Nobel lecture, Joliot-Curie emphasized the potential of using artificial radioactive elements as tagged atoms, simplifying the identification and elimination of various elements in living organisms. He stated that the notion of a few hundred atoms comprising our planet being created simultaneously and existing eternally should not be believed. He also suggested that scientists might be able to achieve explosive transformations, true chemical chain reactions, which would release vast amounts of useful energy. However, he warned that if such decomposition spread to all the elements on our planet, the consequences would only cause alarm.

In 1939, following the discovery by German chemist Otto Hahn of the possibility of nuclear fission, Joliot-Curie provided direct physical evidence that such fission was explosive in nature. Recognizing the enormous amount of energy released during atomic fission, he acquired almost all of Norway's available heavy water. However, the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of France by German armies forced him to interrupt his research. Despite significant risks, Joliot-Curie secretly transported the heavy water under his control to England, where it was used by British scientists in their efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Remaining in Paris during the occupation, Joliot-Curie retained his positions at the Radium Institute and the Collège de France. As an active member of the Resistance movement, he used his laboratory facilities to produce explosives and radio equipment for Resistance fighters until he had to go into hiding in 1944.

After the liberation of Paris, Joliot-Curie was appointed the director of the National Center for Scientific Research, responsible for rebuilding the country's scientific potential. In October 1945, he convinced President Charles de Gaulle to create the French Atomic Energy Commission. Three years later, he oversaw the commissioning of France's first nuclear reactor. Despite his high standing as a scientist and administrator, Joliot-Curie's affiliation with the Communist Party, which he joined in 1942, caused dissatisfaction, leading to his dismissal as head of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1950. He devoted most of his time to research in the laboratory and teaching. While remaining an active political figure, he also served as the president of the World Peace Council.

The death of Irène Joliot-Curie in 1956 was a heavy blow for Joliot-Curie. Taking over her position as the director of the Radium Institute and replacing her as a professor at the Sorbonne, he also took control of the construction of a new institute in Orsay, south of Paris. However, his health was weakened due to a viral hepatitis he had contracted two years earlier, and on August 14, 1958, Joliot-Curie passed away in Paris after an operation related to internal bleeding.