Frédéric Joliot-Curie
(Paris, 1900-Arcouest, 1958) French physicochemist who, together with his wife Irène Curie, discovered artificially induced radioactivity, creating new radioisotopes.He studied at the Liceo Lakanal, where he stood out more for his sports than academic activity.The setbacks in the family economy forced him to attend the free public school Lavoisier to prepare for his admission to the School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry in Paris, where in 1923 he would obtain the title of engineer with the highest qualification of his class.
Frédéric Joliot
After completing his military service, he accepted a research grant and, following the recommendations of Paul Langevin, he accepted an assistant contract in 1925 at the Institute of Radio under the direction of Marie Curie.Pierre and Marie Curie's daughter, Irène Curie, took it upon herself to teach him how to work with radioactivity.A year later Irène and Frédéric were married in a civil ceremony.At the same time he continued studying for a degree in science and worked as a teacher at the Charliat School of Industrial Electricity, to improve his economic situation.He graduated from science in 1927 and obtained his doctorate in 1930 with a thesis on the electrochemical study of radioelements.Since 1928 he signed all scientific papers jointly with his wife.
Both carried out notable work on radioactivity and nuclear physics.In 1934 the couple published a memoir showing the preparation of artificial radioisotopes by bombarding light atoms (boron, aluminum and magnesium).They observed that in the process of bombardment the atom absorbed an alpha particle at the same time that protons and neutrons were produced, and even positrons (the antiparticle of the electron).In this way they obtained radioactive isotopes of elements that were not radioactive and revealed the possibility of applying their discoveries to achieve chemical changes in physiological processes.Their assumptions were later verified by detecting the uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland.
Once France was liberated, he was a member of the Provisional Consultative Assembly (1944-1945).In 1944 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences and appointed director of the CNRS (Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1944-1946).In 1945, General Charles De Gaulle authorized Joliot and the Minister of Armaments to create the Atomic Energy Commission, to facilitate the application of the discoveries that were hidden in 1939 due to the rise of Nazism in Europe.In 1946 he was appointed director of the Institute of Radio and French representative in the Nuclear Energy Commission of the United Nations.His efforts culminated in the construction of ZOE, the first French nuclear reactor (1948), thus ending the Anglo-Saxon nuclear monopoly.
In 1950, Prime Minister Georges Bidault removed him from his post as High Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission for his communist ideology, a position he had held since 1946.A few months later his wife was also dismissed.From then on they concentrated on teaching and research tasks, although they also served in various pacifist movements.
In May 1953 he had his first attack of hepatitis and in 1955 he suffered a strong relapse.After Irène Curie's death in 1956, he decided to finish his wife's project to build nuclear physics laboratories at the University of Orsay, where researchers could work without the ties of the Paris laboratories.In September 1956, he accepted the chair that Irène had set free, although he kept his chair at the College de France.Shortly before his death, he was able to attend the start of research activities in the new laboratories.
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