Men and women of science

Grenoble-Isere is more than just a scientific centre, with men and women passionately interested in learning, technical progress and innovation.

Louis Neel (1904-2000)

• Graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1924
• Director of Institut Polytechnique Superieur de Grenoble (IPG) from 1950 to 1976
• From 1943 to 1976 he headed the mechanical tests laboratory at IPG, the Grenoble electrostatics and physics of metal laboratory and the Grenoble magnetism laboratory.
• In 1970 he was awarded a Nobel prize for physics for his discovery of a dual antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic crystalline network giving rise to phenomena distinct from classical ferromagnetism.
• An influential figure in contemporary science, he played a key role in the start and subsequent success of the Grenoble centre, campaigning hard, for instance, to have Institut Laue-Langevin and subsequently the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility located here.

Rudolph Mössbauer (1929, Munich)

• Specialized in the study of gamma rays and nuclear transitions
• Nobel prize for physics in 1961 for his discovery of the Mössbauer effect, namely resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma ray photons by atoms bound in a solid form
• 1986 Albert Einstein medal for his work at Institut Laue Langevin
• 1972-77: Director of Institut Laue Langevin

Klaus Von Klitzing (1943, Germany)

• Nobel prize for physics for his work on the quantum Hall effect. After starting research at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford, from 1975 to 1978, he completed his discovery at the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory in 1979-80.

Philippe Nozieres (1932, France)

• Graduated from Ecole Normale Superieure
• Professor at Grenoble University from 1972 to 1983
• Researcher at Institut Laue Langevin
• Winner of the Wolf physics prize in 1985
• Member of the US National Academy of Sciences since 1991, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1992

Joseph Sifakis

• Research director at CNRS
• Founder of the Verimag laboratory
• Doctorate in computer science at Grenoble University
• Winner of the Turing prize in 2007
• Scientific coordinator the Artist2 European network of excellence on embedded systems
• Director of Institut Carnot Software and Smart Systems and Director of CRI Pilsi

Eva Pebay Peyroula (1956, France)

• Professor physics at Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble
• Researcher at Institut Laue Langevin
• Director the Grenoble Structural Biology Laboratory
• Instigator of the Grenoble Membrane Proteins Laboratory
• Her work focuses on the contribution of structural biology to our understanding of membrane protein functions. Elected to France’s Academie des Sciences in 2004

Claude Lorius (1932, France)

• Recognized for his discovery and interpretation of the paleo-atmosphere information in polar ice cores as a source of data on earlier climatic conditions
• Director of the Grenoble Glaciology and Geophysics Laboratory from 1983 to 1988
• Research director at CNRS and gold medal winner in 2002
• Elected to France’s Academie des Sciences in 1994
• The first French person to win the Blue Planet Prize, for environmental excellence, in 2008

Men and women of history

What do Stendhal, Etienne Bonnot De Condillac, Jean-François de Champolion, Hector Berlioz, Jacques de Vaucansson, Lionel Terray or indeed Joseph Vallier have in common?

Apart from the fact that these famous men left a lasting mark on their time, they are also all from Isere.

Stendhal (1743-1842)

• Grenoble-born French novelist.
• With his novels of education, Le Rouge et le Noir (1830), La Chartreuse de Parme (1839) and Lucien Leuwen (unfinished) he became one of the leading exponents of the 19th century French novel, alongside Balzac, Flaubert, Victor Hugo and Zola.
• Most of his heroes are young people with romantic ambitions, full of vitality and energy, driven by powerful feelings and dreams of glory.

Hector Berlioz (1803-69)

• Born at La Cote-Saint-Andre, Isere, Berlioz was a composer, writer and critic.
• He ranks as one of the finest examples of Europe’s Romantic movement.
• La Symphonie Fantastique, Les Troyens and La Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale are among this great composer’s most famous works.

Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-80)

• Condillac, who was born in Grenoble in 1715, became a philosopher.
• A disciple of John Locke, Condillac in turn inspired several British thinkers. In fields related to the association of ideas, the supremacy of pleasure and pain, and in the overall explanation of all thought as a sensation or transformed sensation, Condillac made a substantial contribution to founding psychology as a science.
• A classical, liberal economist, who pointed the way forward in political economics, Condillac was an inspiration to subsequent generations of economists, particularly in France.

Captains of industry

An area’s economic development is often the result of just a few people’s enterprising energy and quest for innovation. Here are some of these entrepreneurs, true captains of industry, deeply attached to Grenoble-Isere and determined to see it flourish.

Serge Kampf (1934-)

• Business man, founder and president of the French system house Capgemini
• In 1967, with three colleagues, he started Sogeti in Grenoble
• Under his leadership the firm acquired an international dimension, developing to become Capgemini, a multinational corporation quoted on the Paris Stock Exchange CAC 40 list.
• The company which started with a staff of six employees and 100,000 francs in fixed assets, now reports annual sales of €8.71bn, with 86,495 workers.

Teisseire family

• Teisseire is a local firm specializing in the production of fruit syrups and juices.
• 1720: Mathieu Teisseire starts the company in Crolles.
• 1912: Construction of the first Teisseire factory.
• 1959: First metal can container.
• 1971: Construction of the new factory in Crolles.
• 2006: The firm employs 260 people, reporting €257m annual sales.

Paul-Louis Merlin (1882-1973)

• Graduate of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers engineering school
• 1919: met Gaston Gerin at a Lyon firm, Maljournal et Bourron
• 1920: the two friends took the plunge, starting Etablissements Merlin et Gerin in Grenoble
• The company soon specialized in the purchase and sale of electrical equipment, as well as selling spare parts for precision engineering. Driven forwards by Merlin, the company achieved rapid growth.
• 1930: now a Limited Company, Merlin Gerin had a workforce of 1,200.
• 1970s: international expansion and the start of production centres outside Grenoble.
• 1975: Schneider gradually acquired a controlling interest in Merlin Gerin.
• Now the world leader for electrical distribution and automation, Schneider Electric reported €18.3bn sales in 2008 with a workforce of 114,000.

Jean Therme

• Physicist and engineer, a graduate of Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG)
• 1990: seconded by STMicroelectronics to head a joint research team with CEA-Leti
• 1995: appointed head of the microelectronics department at CEA-Leti
• 1999: appointed head of CEA-Leti, promoted just one year later to head the CEA-Grenoble research centre. Under his leadership CEA-Leti tripled its level of outside funding between 1999 and 2004.
• He also shifted the focus of CEA-Grenoble to concentrate on micro and nanotechnology, biotechnology and new energy technologies.
• 2003: Jean Therme was appointed Director of the CEA Technology Research Directorate.
• He is the driving force behind the Minatec innovation centre, Europe’s leading micro and nanotechnology research centre, and the prime mover in the Giant project.