Georges Charpak

Georges Charpak
Born	8 March 1924(1924-03-08) Dąbrowica, Poland (now Dubrovytsia, Ukraine)
Died	29 September 2010(2010-09-29) (aged 86) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Fields	Physics
Known for	Multiwire proportional chamber
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physics, 1992

Georges Charpak (8 March^[1] 1924 – 29 September 2010) was a French physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1992.^[2]

Life

Georges Charpak was born to Jewish family in the village of Dąbrowica in Poland (now Dubrovytsia, Ukraine). Charpak's family moved from Poland to Paris when he was seven years old. During World War II Charpak served in the resistance and was imprisoned by Vichy authorities in 1943. In 1944 he was deported to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, where he remained until the camp was liberated in 1945. After classes préparatoires studies at Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and later at Lycée Joffre in Montpellier,^[3] he joined in 1945 the Paris-based École des Mines, one of the most prestigious engineering schools in France. The following year he became a naturalized French citizen. He graduated in 1948, earning the French degree of Civil Engineer of Mines (equivalent to a Master's degree) and started working for the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He received his PhD in 1954 from Nuclear Physics at the Collège de France, Paris, where he worked in the laboratory of Frédéric Joliot-Curie.In 1959, he joined the staff of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva. This is where he invented the multiwire proportional chamber, which he patented and that quickly superseded the old bubble chambers, allowing for better data processing. He eventually retired from CERN in 1991.In 1980, Georges Charpak became professor-in-residence at École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles in Paris (ESPCI) and held the Joliot-Curie Chair there in 1984. This is where he developed and demonstrated the powerful applications of the particle detectors he invented, most notably for enabling better health diagnostics. He was the co-founder of a number of start-up in the biomedical arena, including Molecular Engines Laboratories, Biospace Instruments and SuperSonic Imagine – together with Mathias Fink.He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences on 20 May 1985. Georges Charpak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1992 "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber", with affiliations to both École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles (ESPCI) and CERN. This was the last time a single person was awarded the physics prize.^{[citation needed]}

In March, 2001 Charpak received Honorary degree Ph.D from University of the Andes, Colombia in Bogotá.^[4]

In France, Charpak was a very strong advocate for nuclear power. Prof. Charpak was a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.^[5]

Publications

Books

• La vie à fil tendu, co-authored with Dominique Saudinos (1993 Odile Jacob, ISBN 2-7381-0214-X)
• Devenez sorciers, devenez savants, co-authored with Henri Broch (Odile Jacob, ISBN 90-581-4005-9). Published in English as "Debunked!" by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Technical Reports

• Charpak, G. & M. Gourdin. "The K{sup 0}anti K{sup 0} System", European Organization for Nuclear Research, Paris University, (July 11, 1967).
• Charpak, G. "Evolution of Some Particle Detectors Based On the Discharge in Gases", European Organization for Nuclear Research, (November 19, 1969).
• Charpak, G. & F. Sauli, "High Accuracy, Two-Dimensional Read-Out in Multiwire Proportional Chambers", European Organization for Nuclear Research, (February 14, 1973).
• Charpak, G.; Jeavons, A.; Sauli, F. & R. Stubbs, "High-Accuracy Measurements of the Centre of Gravity of Avalanches in Proportional Chambers", European Organization for Nuclear Research, (September 24, 1973).
• Crittenden, J.A.; Hsiung, Y.B. ; Kaplan, a.D.M. ; Hubbard, J.R. ; Mangeot, P. ; Peisert, A. ; Charpak, G. ; Sauli, F. ; Brown, C.N. ; Childress, S. ; and others. (1986). "Inclusive hadronic production cross sections measured in proton-nucleus collisions at. sqrt. s = 27. 4 GeV". Physical Review D 34 (9): 2584. Bibcode 1986PhRvD..34.2584C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.34.2584. OSTI 7244218. 

References

1. ^ Martin, Douglas (2 October 2010). "Georges Charpak, Physics Nobel Winner, Dies at 86". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/science/03charpak.html. "In a speech last year, Dr. Charpak (pronounced shahr-PUCK) said he was born on March 8, 1924, not Aug. 1 as officially recorded." 
2. ^ French Nobel physics laureate Georges Charpak dies at 86 Earthtimes. 30 September 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010
3. ^ "Tribulations d’un immigré d’Europe centrale, Georges Charpak" on Lycée Joffre website (French)
4. ^ Universidad de los Andes Reglamentación del Doctorado Honoris Causa. Approved 2 December 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2010
5. ^ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Board of Sponsors. Thebulletin.org. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.

External links

• Information from Official Nobel site
• Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
• Georges Charpak
• Georges Charpak U.S. Patents
• Ioannis Giomataris: Georges Charpak – a true men of science, CERN Courier

Persondata
Name	Charpak, Georges
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 8, 1924
Place of birth	Dąbrowica, Poland (now Dubrovytsia, Ukraine)
Date of death	September 29, 2010
Place of death	Paris, France