Paul Langevin

French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an anti-fascist organization created after the 6 February 1934 far right riots. Langevin was also president of the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1944 to 1946 – having recently joined the French Communist Party. Being a public opponent of fascism in the 1930s resulted in his arrest and being held under house arrest by the Vichy government for most of World War II.

He was a doctoral student of Pierre Curie and later a lover of Marie Curie. He is also known for his two US patents with Constantin Chilowsky in 1916 and 1917 involving ultrasonic submarine detection.

In 1898, he married Emma Jeanne Desfosses, and together they had four children, Jean, André, Madeleine and Hélène. In 1933, he had a son with physicist Eliane Montel (1898-1992), Paul-Gilbert Langevin, who became a renowned musicologist. Paul Langevin died in Paris on 19 December 1946 at age 74, two years after living to see the Liberation of Paris.