Jules Guéron
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Jules Guéron (2 June 1907 – 11 October 1990) was a French physical chemist and atomic scientist who played a key role in the development of atomic energy in France.


Biography


Early life

Guéron was educated at
Lycée Charlemagne The Lycée Charlemagne () is located in the Marais quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, the capital city of France. Constructed many centuries before it became a lycée, the building originally served as the home of the Order of the Je ...
in Paris (1913-1924). He graduated with the "
baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
" (high school degree) in Latin, Sciences and Mathematics. From 1926 to 1935 he studied at the
University of Paris-Sorbonne Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...
in Prof. Marcel Guichard's laboratory, earning a doctorate in physical sciences for which he was awarded the Adrian prize of the French Society of Chemistry. In 1938 Guéron was appointed lecturer at the
University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...
. He married Geneviève Bernheim in 1934 and had three sons (Maurice, Henri and Frédéric).


World War II

Responding to the historic call for resistance of General
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
, Guéron made his way to Great Britain in June 1940. He enlisted in the
Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army ( ; AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (; FFL) during World War II. The military force of Free France, it participated ...
and was at first assigned to the Service technique de l'Armement. In December 1941 he was transferred to the Anglo-Canadian Atomic Energy Project, known as "
Tube Alloys Tube Alloys was the research and development programme authorised by the United Kingdom, with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Starting before the Manhattan Project in the United States, the Bri ...
", at the
Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
in Cambridge. In 1943 Guéron moved to Montreal as a member of the Tube Alloys team, which at this point also included the French scientists Hans Halban, Pierre Auger,
Bertrand Goldschmidt Bertrand Goldschmidt (2 November 1912 – 11 June 2002) was a French chemist. He is considered one of the fathers of the French atomic bomb, which was tested for the first time in 1960 in the nuclear test Gerboise Bleue. Biography Bertra ...
, and
Lew Kowarski Lew Kowarski (10 February 1907 – 30 July 1979) was a Russian-French physicist. He was a lesser-known but important contributor to nuclear science. He participated in the British Tube Alloys on early nuclear weapon research. After the war he wor ...
. Work at Tube Alloys did not always proceed smoothly. Most notable was a lengthy interruption of the collaboration with the (American)
Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...
which lasted until the August 1943 Quebec agreement between
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
and
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
. The French scientists had their own concerns. Some were highly critical of de Gaulle's constant opposition to the United States, and they imagined that he might reconsider if made aware of this specific and significant instance of America's awesome strength. In this spirit, when General de Gaulle visited Ottawa on 11 July 1944, Guéron personally imparted his near certainty that within one year the US would master a highly powerful weapon: "une bombe, une ville."


A career in atomic energy

In 1945, the French government established the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) with the charter of exploring atomic energy. Guéron was nominated Head of the Chemistry unit. In 1951 he became the first director of the CEA's nuclear research center in
Saclay Saclay () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and particle physics. Population Inhabit ...
. In 1958 Guéron was recruited by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) as General Director of Research and Education (1958–1968). This may be considered as a draft of a 'History of Euratom' that J. Guéron did not bring to completion. From 1969 to 1976 Guéron was a professor at the
University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...
. Concurrently, he consulted for
Framatome Framatome () is a French nuclear reactor business. It is owned by Électricité de France (EDF) (80.5%) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (19.5%). The company first formed in 1958 to license Westinghouse's pressurized water reactor (PWR) designs ...
, the firm responsible for building the vast park of French electricity-producing nuclear reactors. He also served as Secretary of the International Commission on Atomic Weights (1960–1969). He is the author of several books and of many articles on atomic energy. He was made "Officier de la
Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
".


Bibliography

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References


External links


Archives
by Jules Guéron are at th
Historical Archives of the European Union.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gueron, Jules 1907 births 1990 deaths Recipients of the Legion of Honour People from Tunis French nuclear physicists Manhattan Project people