Gabriel Lippmann

Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann ( born August 16, 1845 in Bonneweg ( Bonnevoie ), then community Hollerech, Luxembourg, † July 13, 1921 in the Atlantic Ocean on the France on the journey from New York to Le Havre) was a French physicist and Nobel laureate in physics.

Life and work

Gabriel Lippmann was the son of a French- Jewish family that soon moved to his native France, where he went to school. In 1883 Lippmann professor of mathematical physics and 1886 for experimental physics at the Sorbonne.

He developed, among other things based on the interference and named after him Lippmann process of color photography, which he in 1891 the Academy of Natural Sciences presented and for which he was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The theoretically founded by him in 1881 " reciprocal " or "inverse piezo effect " has been demonstrated by the brothers Jacques Curie and Pierre Curie experimentally.

Lippmann is one of the leading physicists of his time and was a member of many scientific organizations, including the Royal Society of London.

Lippmann's work on color photography are now largely forgotten. Important from today's perspective, his work on electrocapillarity (English electrocapillarity ). He developed in 1872 the capillary electrometer. Along with his work on electrowetting (English electrowetting ) he laid important foundations for the field of microfluidics. Using this technique, be able to move on surfaces deliberately back and forth smallest liquid droplets. In addition to biotechnological Mikrofluidikanwendungen can in this way also displays ( electronic paper ) and those lenses with electrically switchable focal length produce.

After the Gabriel Lippmann Public Research Centre Research Centre is - Gabriel Lippmann in Beles (French: Belvaux ) named, Luxembourg.