Marcel Nicolet

Marcel Nicolet, Nicolet from 1987 Baron ( born February 26, 1912 in Basse -Bodeux in Liege, The Ardennes, Belgium, † October 8, 1996 in Uccle / Ukkel in Brussels) was a Belgian astrophysicist and Geo.

Life

He was the son of the brewer Alfred Nicolet and Léopoldine Vauchel. Nicolet first began studying ancient Greek, Latin and French literature. In 1930, however, he decided for a maths degree at the Université de Liège. There he made in 1934 with a Masters in Physics, 1937, to the Ph.D. doctorate and habilitation in later. In 1934 he went as an assistant at the Institut royal météorologique de Belgique (IRM ), where he was later head of the Department of Radiation (Department of Thermodynamics ). Since 1976 he was head of the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy in Brussels.

He presented in 1945 an early theory about the origin of the layers of the terrestrial ionosphere. In the years 1957-1958 he was the General Secretary of the governing body for the International Geophysical Year, the world's major research initiative of the 20th century. Therefore, the Belgian King Baudouin I got him in 1987 in the Belgian hereditary peerage of Baron. Given his performance, he was a member of the scientific academies of Belgium, France and USA, and received the prices / Medals Guggenheim (1963 ), Hopkins (1965) and Bowie (1985).

Nicolet married on September 21, 1938 in Fossé (Ardennes ) Alice Delvenne.

Memberships

He was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Belgium, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. A detailed interview in WMO Bulletin (1990 ) gives a detailed overview of his scientific career and his place in the history of the International Council for Science, whose member he was also.