Pierre Aigrain

Pierre Aigrain ( born September 28, 1924 in Poitiers, † 30 October 2002) was a French physicist and Secretary of State for Research under Valéry Giscard d' Estaing. He worked in the fields of solid state physics and semiconductor technology.

Life

Aigrain began training at École Navale one in October 1942. Due to the scuttling of the fleet of Toulon he must stop his training and was sent to the liberation of France by the United States in sameness to become naval aviators. There he joined the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, where he earned a Ph.D. in physics. His knowledge of electronics led him in 1948 to France, where he came at the suggestion of Yves Rocard in the group of semiconductor technology at the ENS.

It was created in 1952 lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Lille and later worked in the Laboratory of Physics of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. In 1954 he became a lecturer and then professor in 1957 without a chair at the Faculty of the University of Paris -Diderot in Paris, Mathematics and Science. From 1958 he was Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering.

From 1961-1965 he was Director of Defense Research and 1965-67 Director General of Higher Education. The jointly responsible of him to reform the Zuganganserleichterung French universities in 1966 ( Fouchet Aigrain reform) is considered to be a substantial cause of the events of May 1968 ( student riots ). 1968-1973 he was Director of Research Administration of the French government. In 1973 he spent a year as a Henry Luce Professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. After his return he became a consultant for several industrial companies, including Thomson -CSF. 6 April 1978 to 22 May 1981 he was State Secretary for Research under Prime Minister Raymond Barre. Then he sat down for an enhanced scientific collaboration within Europe. In 1991 he was involved on his consultancy work for Thomson -CSF in the frigate affair of Taiwan, sold in France six stealth frigates La Fayette class to Taiwan.

In 1988 he was appointed a member of the French Academy of Sciences.