Anatole Abragam (15 December 1914 – 8 June 2011) was a French physicist who wrote ''The Principles of Nuclear Magnetism'' and made significant contributions to the field of

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are disturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

. Originally from

Griva Griva (Serbian Cyrillic: Грива; trans. '' Mane'') was a Yugoslav hard rock band formed in Novi Sad in 1982. The band was formed by two former members of the band Ibn Tup, guitarist Josip Sabo and drummer Zlatko Karavla. After the band's or ...

Courland Governorate Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, Abragam and his family emigrated to France in 1925.

Education

After being educated at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, (1933–1936), he served in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, he resumed his studies at the

École Supérieure d'Électricité École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

and subsequently obtained his Ph.D. from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1950 under the supervision of

Maurice Pryce Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce (24 January 1913 – 24 July 2003) was a British physicist. Life Pryce was born in Croydon to an Anglo-Welsh father and French mother, and in his teens attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. After a few m ...

Career and research

In 1976, he was made an Honorary Fellow of

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, and

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

. From 1960 to 1985, he worked as a professor at the .

Awards and honors

Abragam won the

Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize The Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize is a major European prize for Physics awarded jointly every year by the British Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Société Française de Physique (SFP). It is one of the four Grand Prix of the SFP and one of ...

in 1958. Abragam was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1974. He was awarded the

Lorentz Medal Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for imp ...

in 1982. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1983. A building in

CEA Saclay The CEA Paris-Saclay center is one of nine centers belonging to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Following a reorganization in 2017, the center consists of multiple sites, including the CEA Saclay site (formerly a ...

is named after him; ''Bâtiment Anatole Abragam''.

Books

* *Abragam A & Bleaney B. ''Electron paramagnetic resonance of transition ions''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1970. * *

References

External links

Anatole Abragam. 15 December 1914 — 8 June 2011
Biographial Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Abragam, Anatole 1914 births 2011 deaths Scientists from Daugavpils People from Courland Governorate 20th-century Latvian Jews Latvian emigrants to France 20th-century French physicists Foreign members of the Royal Society Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Academic staff of the Collège de France University of Paris alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences French Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Lorentz Medal winners Jewish physicists Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Matteucci Medal Jewish French scientists