Joliot-Curie, Frédéric, << zhohl YOH KYOO ree, fray day REEK >> (1900-1958), was a French physical chemist who, together with his wife Irene, synthesized new radioactive atoms. For their work, the Joliot-Curies were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935.
Jean Frédéric Joliot was born in Paris on March 19, 1900. He graduated from the Ecole de Physique et Chimie (School of Physics and Chemistry) in Paris. In 1925, he went to work at the Radium Institute in Paris, as an assistant to the famous French physicist Marie Curie. The following year, he married Curie’s daughter Irene and took the name Joliot-Curie. The Joliot-Curies were the second husband-and-wife team to share a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, were the first, winning the award in physics in 1903.
Joliot-Curie devoted much of his early research to the study of radioactive elements and to the structure of the atom. In the early 1930’s, the Joliot-Curies, working together, produced the first artificial isotope, an atom of an element with a mass (amount of matter) different from that of the naturally occurring atoms. The couple bombarded boron, aluminum, and magnesium with alpha particles given off by radioactive elements. This process produced the new isotopes nitrogen 13, phosphorus 30, silicon 27, and aluminum 28.
In the late 1930’s, Joliot-Curie researched the construction of a nuclear reactor using uranium and heavy water (water containing deuterium the isotope of hydrogen). In 1940, Joliot-Curie had his documents and materials moved to the United Kingdom, so they would not be captured in the German invasion of France during World War II (1939-1945). Joliot-Curie was appointed director of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research) in 1945. He became France’s high commissioner for atomic energy in 1946.
Joliot-Curie took an active interest in politics. During the mid-1930’s, he joined the Socialist Party and the League for the Rights of Man. During World War II, he became a member of the Communist Party and supported the resistance movement. He was also elected president of the World Organization of the Partisans of Peace and, in 1956, became a member of the central committee of the French Communist Party. He died on Aug. 14, 1958.
