Charles-Victor Mauguin (; 19 September 1878 – 25 April 1958), more often Charles Mauguin, was a French

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

and crystallographer. He and

Carl Hermann Carl Heinrich Hermann (17 June 1898 – 12 September 1961), or Carl Hermann , was a German physicist and crystallographer known for his research in crystallographic symmetry, nomenclature, and mathematical crystallography in N-dimensional sp ...

invented an international standard notation for

crystallographic group In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...

s called

Hermann–Mauguin notation In geometry, Hermann–Mauguin notation is used to represent the symmetry elements in point groups, plane groups and space groups. It is named after the German crystallographer Carl Hermann (who introduced it in 1928) and the French mineralogist ...

(also sometimes called international notation).

Education and career

Mauguin originally intended to become a school teacher and enrolled at

École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud 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 ...

in 1902. Later he moved to École Normale Supérieure, Paris, where he obtained his

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

in 1910 in the field of

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

. During his chemistry studies, he also attended lectures on mathematics offered at

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

, including those by

Émile Picard Charles Émile Picard (; 24 July 1856 – 11 December 1941) was a French mathematician. He was elected the fifteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française in 1924. Life He was born in Paris on 24 July 1856 and educated there at th ...

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré (, ; ; 29 April 185417 July 1912) was a French mathematician, Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosophy of science, philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathemati ...

Paul Painlevé Paul Painlevé (; 5 December 1863 – 29 October 1933) was a French mathematician and statesman. He served twice as Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister of the French Third Republic, Third Republic: 12 September – 13 November 1917 and 17 A ...

, and

Édouard Goursat Édouard Jean-Baptiste Goursat (21 May 1858 – 25 November 1936) was a French mathematician, now remembered principally as an expositor for his ''Cours d'analyse mathématique'', which appeared in the first decade of the twentieth century. It s ...

. Before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Mauguin was briefly a faculty member at

University of Bordeaux The University of Bordeaux (, ) is a public research university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Talence. There are al ...

in 1912 and at

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

from 1913 to 1919. He moved back to

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 ...

in 1919 and worked under

Frédéric Wallerant Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to: In artistry: * Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator * Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor * Frédéric Bazille, Impressi ...

as an associate professor of mineralogy. He took over the position in 1933 and became a professor of mineralogy at

and worked until 1948, when Mauguin retired. Mauguin was the first to notice that when he sandwiched the semi-solid liquid crystals between two aligned

polarizer A polarizer or polariser is an optical filter that lets light waves of a specific polarization (waves), polarization pass through while attenuation, blocking light waves of other polarizations. It can filter a beam of light of undefined or mixed ...

s, he could twist them in relation to each other, but the light continued to be transmitted. This phenomenon is called Mauguin regime (waveguide regime) in twisted nematic effect Blinov L.M. Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals (Springer, 2011), pp. 439. Chapter 11. .

References

1878 births 1958 deaths People from Provins French mineralogists Crystallographers Members of the French Academy of Sciences Academic staff of the University of Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the University of Bordeaux Academic staff of Nancy-Université 20th-century French chemists {{france-scientist-stub