Joliot-Curie, Frédéric

(1900-1951)

   physicist, Nobel laureate Born in Paris, where he attended the École normale supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielle, Frédéric Joliet upon graduation took a research position at the Radium institute at the University of Paris, where he met Irene Curie, the daughter of marie and pierre curie. They married in 1926 and both adopted the surname Joliot-Curie. Frédéric Joliot-Curie is widely credited with bringing France into the atomic age through his research and discovery of artificially induced radioactivity, and later by his appointment as director of the French Atomic Energy Commission. The work of the Joliot-Curies led to the development of nuclear fission, nuclear energy, and atomic power. Their further research eventually led to the discovery of the first artificial isotope, then to artificial radioactivity (see irene joliot-curie). Frédéric Joliot-Curie's scientific work was always accompanied by social and political activism. A member of various groups and associations dedicated to the pursuit of peace and democracy, he encouraged France, at the beginning of the World War II,to purchase the world supply of heavy water (necessary for the production of atomic energy) from Norway and had it transferred to Britain. He was a staunch supporter of the resistance and a member of the French Communist Party. The first commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, he directed the construction of "Zoe," the first major French nuclear research center (1945). Relieved of his post in 1950 because of his political views, he dedicated himself to teaching, research, and serving as president of the World Peace Council. He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry with his wife in 1935 and was named to the Academy of Sciences in 1943.