__NOTOC__ Louis-César-Victor-Maurice, 6th duc de Broglie (27 April 1875 – 14 July 1960) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. Brother of the theoretical physicist,

Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (, also , or ; 15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French physicist and aristocrat who made groundbreaking contributions to Old quantum theory, quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he pos ...

Biography

Early years

De Broglie was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, to Victor de Broglie and Pauline de La Forest d'Armaillé (1851–1928). Pauline's parents were Louis de La Forest d'Armaillé, Comte d'Armaillé and Marie Célestine Amélie d'Armaillé, the writer. In 1901, he was married to Camille Bernou de Rochetaillée (1888–1966) in Paris. They had one daughter, Laure, born on 17 November 1904, who died, aged six, on 12 June 1911. He acceded to the title of

duc de Broglie The House of Broglie (, also ; french: Maison de Broglie, or ) is a French noble family, originally Piedmontese, who migrated to France in the year 1643. History () was the name of an old Piedmontese noble family, from which were descended ...

on his father's death in 1906. He died on 14 July 1960 in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

. His only child having died almost a half-century before, his brother Louis succeeded him as duke. Having graduated from naval officer's school, Maurice de Broglie spent nine years in the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

, serving on a gunboat at

Bizerte Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...

and in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

Squadron. While serving, he became interested in physics, and began doing research on

electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...

. De Broglie defied his family's wishes and left the navy in 1904 to pursue a scientific career. He studied under

Paul Langevin Paul Langevin (; ; 23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the ''Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes'', an ant ...

at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

, receiving his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1908.

Career

De Broglie made advances in the study of

X-ray diffraction X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...

and

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he worked on

radio communications Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

for the navy. After the war, he resumed his research at a large laboratory in his home. He occasionally collaborated with his younger brother Louis, who followed his professional lead and was training as a physicist, and they coauthored a paper in 1921. After Louis de Broglie's rise to prominence in the 1920s, building on some of their shared research, the elder de Broglie physicist continued his own research. While Louis was primarily a theoretician, Maurice's focus was mainly experimental. De Broglie became a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

in 1924, and in 1934 was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

, replacing the historian

Pierre de La Gorce Pierre de La Gorce (19 June 1846, Vannes – 2 January 1934) was a French magistrate, lawyer and historian, as well as a member of the Académie française. He wrote books about the Second French Republic, the Second French Empire and the Fren ...

. He had the unique honor of welcoming his own brother into the academy on the latter's induction. In 1942 he succeeded his mentor, assuming Langevin's chair in physics at the

. He was also elected to the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

on 23 May 1940, having received the Royal Society's

Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications". Named after David E. Hughes, the medal is awarded wit ...

in 1928.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Broglie, Maurice De 1875 births 1960 deaths Academic staff of the Collège de France

Maurice Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...

Foreign Members of the Royal Society French Navy officers French physicists

Members of the Académie Française Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Experimental physicists Scientists from Paris