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Born in Paris, France, Frédéric Joliot was a graduate ofESPCI Paris.[4] In 1925 he became an assistant toMarie Curie, at theRadium Institute. He fell in love with her daughterIrène Curie, and soon after their marriage in 1926 they both changed their surnames to Joliot-Curie.[5][6] At the insistence of Marie, Joliot-Curie obtained a secondbaccalauréat, a bachelor's degree, and a doctorate in science, doing his thesis on the electrochemistry of radio-elements.
While a lecturer at the Paris Faculty of Science, he collaborated with his wife on research on the structure of theatom, in particular on the projection, or recoil, of nuclei that had been struck by other particles, which was an essential step in the discovery of theneutron byJames Chadwick in 1932. In 1935 they were awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery ofInduced radioactivity, resulting from the creation of short-livedradioisotopes bynuclear transmutation from the bombardment of stablenuclides such as boron, magnesium, and aluminium withalpha particles.
In 1937, he left the Radium Institute to become a professor at theCollège de France. In January 1939, he wrote a letter to his Soviet colleague,Abram Loffe, alerting him to the fact that German physicists had recently discovered nuclear fission of uranium bombarded byneutrons, releasing large amounts of energy.[7] He went on to work onnuclear chain reactions and the requirements for the successful construction of anuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy. Joliot-Curie was mentioned inAlbert Einstein's1939 letter toPresident Roosevelt as one of the leading scientists on the course to nuclear chain reactions. TheSecond World War, however, largely stalled Joliot's research, as did his subsequent post-war administrative duties.
Stamp issued by Romania commemorating Frédéric Joliot-Curie ("The 10th Anniversary of the World Peace Movement")
At the time of theNaziinvasion in 1940, Joliot-Curie managed to smuggle his working documents and materials to England withHans von Halban,Moshe Feldenkrais andLew Kowarski. During the French occupation, he took an active part in theFrench Resistance. In June 1941, he took part in the founding of theNational Front, and became its president. In the spring of 1942, he joined theFrench Communist Party to become a member of itsCentral Committee in 1956.[8] Collins and LaPierre in their bookIs Paris Burning? note that during theParis uprising in August 1944, he served in the Prefecture of Police, manufacturingMolotov cocktails for his fellow insurgents, the Resistance's principal weapon against German tanks. The Prefecture was the scene of some of the most intense fighting during the uprising.[9]
A team of scientists and intelligence officers from the alliedAlsos Mission later found Curie at theCollège de France. He was sent to England to be interviewed and gave important information about the names and activities of German scientists.
He served as director of theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research, and appointed byCharles De Gaulle in 1945, he became France's firstHigh Commissioner for Atomic Energy. In 1948, he oversaw the construction of the firstFrench atomic reactor. He and Irène visited Moscow in June 1945 for the two hundred and twentieth anniversary of theRussian Academy of Sciences and returned sympathizing with "hard-working Russians".[6] His affiliation with the Communist party caused Irène to be detained onEllis Island during her third trip to the US, coming to speak in support of Spanish refugees, at theJoint Antifascist Refugee Committee's invitation. A devotedcommunist, he was purged in 1950 and relieved of most of his duties, but retained his professorship at theCollège de France. Joliot-Curie was one of the eleven signatories to theRussell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955. On the death of his wife in 1956, he took over her position as Chair of Nuclear Physics at theSorbonne. Frédéric's health was by that time declining, and he died in 1958 from liver disease, which, like the death of his wife, was said to be the result of overexposure to radiation.[10]
Joliot-Curie appeared as himself inKampen om tungtvannet (La bataille de l'eau lourde in French; 1948), a French–Norwegian semi-documentary film about sabotage of theVemork heavy water plant in Norway during World War II. His assistants Hans Halban andLev Kovarski also appear. Joliot-Curie is shown lecturing about nuclear fission and chain reaction at the Collège de France.[12]
He was the recipient of the first (1950)Stalin Peace Prize, awarded on 6 April 1951[13][14] for his work as president of theWorld Council of Peace, which he carried out from 1950 until his death in 1958.
The Joliot-Curies in the 1940sThe Joliot-Curies, Biquards and Wangs in summer 1941
Frédéric and Irène hyphenated their surnames to Joliot-Curie after they married on 4 October 1926 in Paris, France, although their daughter has said, "Many people used to name my parents Joliot-Curie, but they signed their scientific papers Irène Curie and Frédéric Joliot".[15][6]
^abcRayner-Canham, Marelene F. (1997).A Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity. Philadelphia, Pa.: Chemical Heritage Foundation.ISBN978-0-7735-6658-3.OCLC191818978.
^Lapierre, Dominique; Collins, Larry (1965).Is Paris Burning?. New York: Warner Books. pp. 107, 120.ISBN978-0-446-39225-9.
^Shelley, Emling (21 August 2012).Marie Curie and her daughters : the private lives of science's first family (First ed.). New York.ISBN9780230115712.OCLC760974704.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^О присуждении международных Сталинских премий "За укрепление мира между народами" за 1950 год.Pravda. 6 Apr 1951[1]Archived 2011-05-22 at theWayback Machine
