FRENCH MATERIALS SCIENTIST GETS NOBEL IN PHYSICS
Author: By Richard Saltus, Globe Staff
Date: Thursday, October 17, 1991
Page: 5
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
The 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded yesterday to Pierre-Gilles
de Gennes, a French physicist who has been hailed as "the Isaac Newton of our
time" for his genius in reducing a broad range of complex phenomena to a few
simple truths.
Taking on a succession of challenges, de Gennes found unifying threads in
such diverse areas as magnetism, liquid crystals -- the materials used in
digital watches and laptop computer screens -- superconductors and modern
plastics and fabrics.
Like Newton, the 17th century scientist who discovered a set of basic laws
explaining the complicated motions of the planets, de Gennes is known for
''his strength in simplifying the view of the world around him," said Thomas
J. Graytak, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In part because Boston is a center of research in liquid crystals, de
Gennes is well known to many scientists here, said Robert Meyer, a physicist
at Brandeis University.
"He has many friends in the Boston area and visits here often," said Meyer,
who said there are strong links between de Gennes and institutions such as
Brandeis, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
which are active in research on liquid crystals.
"The way he deals with people makes subjects exciting and beautiful,"
added Meyer, who said that de Gennes has had "a big influence on scientists"
in the Boston area, as he has internationally.
De Gennes, who was born in 1932 in Paris, has been professor at the College
de France since 1971 and director of the Ecole de Physique et Chimie in Paris
since 1976, making him one of the most influential scientists in France.
His many contributions have been in what is called "condensed matter
physics," which involves the behavior of materials that condense into solid,
gas or liquid phases.
To explain how these materials behave when they go from one phase to
another, physicists have examined changes in the orientation of the molecules
in the material.
For example, in one phase the molecules lie in random orientations. In the
next phase, the molecules are all lined up in the same direction. When the
material changes to another phase, the molecules form two-dimensional
structures, then three-dimensional structures, and so forth.
De Gennes' contribution was the discovery of general rules for how these
materials behave during the transition from one phase to another.
The materials known as liquid crystals undergo a number of such phase
changes, which give them their unique place in visual display screens of many
types, including flat-screen television, Meyer said.
De Gennes' work did not create such applications but "enabled him to
explain and predict many interesting things in liquid crystals," Meyer said.
For example, Graytak said, there are up to 1,000 different materials that
exhibit liquid crystal behavior. "What de Gennes was able to do was look at
the behavior of all these systems and find they could be classified into five
or seven different phases. He elucidated that there were only a handful of
types of order" that these molecules "could have in different phases. So the
chemists' cabinet was ordered into several classes" that simplified the
behavior of the liquid crystal.
In addition, de Gennes pointed out analogies between the behavior of liquid
crystals and superconductors -- materials that conduct electricity with
extremely high efficiency -- that shed important light on both, Meyer said.
De Gennes also discovered similar rules to explain some fundamental puzzles
in the behavior of polymers, which are materials made up of long chains of
molecules and which include both natural substances such as wool and cotton
and synthetics like nylon, polyester, plastics, and plexiglass.
In the past year or two, de Gennes has been studying adhesives and glues.
He told reporters in Paris that "eventually one could make airplanes that are
glued and not riveted," according to the Associated Press.
De Gennes, a father of seven, said on learning of the award: "One
shouldn't get big-headed. The crowning of our lives is not at all the reward.
It is above all our children."
SALTUS;10/16 CORCOR;10/17,15:08 NOBEL17
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