Georges Charpak
Charpak, Georges (1924-), a Polish-born French physicist, devised techniques that revolutionized high-energy physics. Some of his innovations transformed the study of subatomic particles. For his invention of a device that detects such particles, Charpak was awarded the 1992 Nobel Prize in physics.
Charpak was born in Dabrovica, Poland. In 1929, his family emigrated to France. During World War II (1939-1945), Charpak joined the French Resistance. In 1943, the Nazi-controlled government arrested him and sent him to the Dachau concentration camp. After the camp was liberated in 1945, he entered the École des Mines in Paris and received a degree in civil engineering. In 1946, he became a French citizen. He studied at the Collège de France and received his Ph.D. degree in 1955. In 1953, he and Dominique Vidal married. The couple has three children.
In 1959, Charpak accepted a position at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Geneva, Switzerland. Charpak transformed the study of subatomic particles. He developed the multiwire proportional chamber, a particle detector linked to a computer. His innovations eliminated the need for photographic film, which was time-consuming to analyze. At CERN, scientists now use particle accelerators—devices that hurl subatomic particles together at extremely high energies more than 11,000 times a second. The scientists then study the tracks of particles from the collisions. Charpak's chamber can record millions of tracks a second. It has helped scientists discover new subatomic particles and has proven useful in aerospace technology and medical imaging. For his work, Charpak won the 1992 Nobel Prize in physics.
Charpak assists scientists who live under repressive governments, including Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov of the former Soviet Union.