Dominique Langevin facts for kids
Dominique Langevin (born on July 24, 1947) is a famous French scientist who studies physical chemistry. She is a research director at a big science organization called the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). She also leads a special group that studies how liquids meet each other at the University of Paris-Sud. From 2013 to 2021, she was in charge of a science committee for the European Science Foundation.
Dominique Langevin studies how liquids behave when they touch, like when oil and water mix, or when a liquid meets a gas. This is called "interfacial rheology." She is very interested in things like foams (think of soap bubbles) and emulsions (like mayonnaise). She has helped us understand how the properties of these surfaces make foams and emulsions stable. Her work has brought many scientists together to learn more about these everyday substances. She has also written books, including Emulsions, microemulsions and foams (2020).
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Early Life
Dominique Anne-Marie Cruchon was born in Angoulême, France. Her parents were Maurice Cruchon and Jacqueline Maujean. In 1969, she married a mathematician named Michel Langevin.
Education and Early Research
Dominique Langevin earned her PhD from a women's science school in Paris, called the École Normale Supérieure. She did her research at the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, studying under Marie-Anne Bouchiat. After her PhD, she continued her research at the laboratory of Pierre Gilles de Gennes at the Collège de France.
Career Highlights
In the 1970s, Dominique Langevin started a research group at the École Normale Supérieure that focused on surfactants. Surfactants are special chemicals that help liquids mix, like soap helps oil and water mix. Later, in the early 1990s, she created another research group to study flexible surfactant films.
From 1994 to 1998, she was the director of the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal in Bordeaux. She also led the European Colloid and Interface Society from 1992 to 1993.
Understanding Foams and Emulsions
Dominique Langevin's research focuses on the physics of "soft matter." This includes studying the surfaces of liquid crystals (like those in your phone screen). She also looks at mixtures of surfactants and polymers (large molecules like plastics).
Her work also explores how tiny particles called nanoparticles affect foams. She studies how liquids drain from foams and soap films. Her research helps us understand how the mechanical properties of surfaces make foams and emulsions stable.
Real-World Uses of Her Research
Dominique Langevin's discoveries are very useful in many areas, from making food and medicines to creating detergents. Her work helps in building materials, fighting fires, and even cleaning up pollution. She has also worked with the European Space Agency (ESA). She led a team that studied how foams behave in microgravity (like in space) for an experiment called FOAM-C.
Awards and Recognition
Dominique Langevin has received many important awards for her scientific work, including:
- 2012: Kasha Mittala (Kash Mittal Award) for Surfactant in Solution Science
- 2012: Overbeek Gold Medal from the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS)
- 2009: European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation, European Commission
- 2006: Légion d’honneur (a high French award)
- 2005: L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, for her important studies of detergents, emulsions, and foams.
- 2002: CNRS silver medal from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique
- 2004: Gentler-Kastler Prize from the Société Française de Physique and the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
- 2001: Elected to the Academy of Europe
- 1991: Grand prix de l’Académie des Sciences
See also
In Spanish: Dominique Langevin para niños
