Françoise Balibar (born Françoise Dumesnil; 1941) is 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 ca ...

and science historian, a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

. She has extensively published works on

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

, the

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

, and the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

Biography

Françoise Balibar studied at

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education sca ...

from 1960 to 1964. She has written numerous articles in national and international journals and led the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

team in charge of six volumes of the French edition of Einstein's selected works. She is also the author of several books, including ''The Science of Crystals'' and ''Einstein: Decoding the Universe''. She is the wife of the philosopher

Étienne Balibar Étienne Balibar (; ; born 23 April 1942) is a French philosopher. He has taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, at the University of California Irvine and is currently an Anniversary Chair Professor at the Centre for Research in Modern ...

and the mother of the actress

Jeanne Balibar Jeanne Balibar (born 13 April 1968) is a French actress and singer. Life and career Balibar was born in Paris, the daughter of Marxist philosopher Étienne Balibar and physicist Françoise Balibar. She started her career as a student in t ...

. She has appeared in two films: ' in 1997 and ''

Modern Life Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " Age of Rea ...

'' in 2000.

Selected publications

* Co-author with

Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond (born 1940) is a physicist and essayist. Biography After high school in Cannes, Lévy-Leblond studied mathematics at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly (Paris), then entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1958. A member of ...

, ''Quantics: Rudiments of Quantum Physics'', North-Holland, 1990 * Co-author with Jean-Pierre Maury, ''How Things Fly'', Barron's Educational Series, 1990 * ''The Science of Crystals'', McGraw-Hill Companies, 1992 * ''Einstein : La joie de la pensée'', collection «

Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an Collection (publishing), editorial collection of Book illustration, illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in Pocket edition, ...

» (nº 193), série Sciences et techniques. Éditions Gallimard, 1993 (new edition in 2011) ** US edition – ''Einstein: Decoding the Universe'', “

Abrams Discoveries Abrams may refer to: * Abrams (surname), a list of notable people with the surname * '' Abrams v. United States'', 250 U.S. 616 (1919), U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech during times of war * M1 Abrams, main battle tank * Abrams, W ...

” series. Harry N. Abrams, 2001 ** UK edition – ''Einstein: Decoding the Universe'', ‘

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a t ...

’ series. Thames & Hudson, 2005 * ''Marie Curie : Femme savante ou Sainte Vierge de la science ?'', collection « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 497), série Sciences et techniques. Éditions Gallimard, 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balibar, Françoise 1941 births Epistemologists 20th-century French physicists French women physicists Audiobook narrators École Normale Supérieure alumni Living people 21st-century French physicists 20th-century French women scientists 21st-century French women scientists French women historians 20th-century French historians 20th-century French women writers