Antoine Henri Becquerel
| Antoine Henri Becquerel | |
|---|---|
Henri Becquerel, French physicist
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| Born |
15 December 1852 Paris, France |
| Died | 25 August 1908 (aged 55) Le Croisic, Brittany, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Physics, chemistry |
| Institutions |
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers École Polytechnique Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle |
| Alma mater |
École Polytechnique École des Ponts et Chaussées |
| Doctoral students | Marie Skłodowska-Curie |
| Known for | Discovery of radioactivity |
| Notable awards |
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Note that he is the father of Jean Becquerel, the son of A. E. Becquerel, and the grandson of Antoine César Becquerel.
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Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity. For work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him.
Becquerel was born in Paris into a rich family which produced four generations of scientists: Becquerel's grandfather (Antoine César Becquerel), father (Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel), and son (Jean Becquerel). He studied engineering at the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées. In 1890 he married Louise Désirée Lorieux.
In 1892, he became the third in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1894, he became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways.
Becquerel's earliest works centered on the subject of his doctoral thesis: the plane polarization of light, with the phenomenon of phosphorescence and absorption of light by crystals.
Becquerel's discovery of spontaneous radioactivity is a famous example of serendipity, of how chance favors the prepared mind. Becquerel had long been interested in phosphorescence, the emission of light of one color following a body's exposure to light of another color. In early 1896, in the wave of excitement following Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of X-rays on January 5 that same year, Becquerel thought that phosphorescent materials, such as some uranium salts, might emit penetrating X-ray-like radiation when illuminated by bright sunlight. His first experiments appeared to show this.
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