Fernand Holweck
| Fernand Holweck | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
21 July 1890 Paris, France |
| Died | 24 December 1941 (aged 51) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions |
ESPCI ParisTech Faculté des sciences de Paris |
| Alma mater | ESPCI ParisTech, |
| Known for | Holweck pump, gravimetric pendulum, work on soft X-rays, X-ray tubes and television. |
| Notable awards | 1936 Albert 1st of Monaco Prize |
Fernand Holweck (21 July 1890 in Paris – 24 December 1941 in Paris) was a French physicist who made important contributions in the fields of vacuum technology, electromagnetic radiation and gravitation. He is also remembered for his personal sacrifice in the cause of the French Resistance and his aid to Allied airmen in World War II.
Holweck was born on 21 July 1890 to a family from the Alsace Region who had opted to remain French at the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. He studied at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI), where he graduated top of his class in engineering physics and became personal assistant to Marie Curie. During his military service he worked under the wireless telegraphy pioneer Gustave-Auguste Ferrié at the Eiffel Tower radio station, and by 1914 he had produced his first patent, relating to thermionic tubes.
During World War I, 1914–1918, he served first at the front, working on methods to detect enemy radio signals, and later at the naval study centre in Toulon, working under Paul Langevin on ultrasonic sounding. Demobilised in 1919, Holweck resumed his work at Institut du Radium, gaining his doctorate in 1922, and eventually becoming Director of Research at the CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research) in 1938.
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