Dominique Langevin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dominique Langevin
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| Born | 24 July 1947  Angoulême |
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| Occupation | Physicist, researcher |
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Dominique Langevin (born 24 July 1947) is a French scientist who studies physical chemistry. She is a research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (a big French science organization). She leads a group that studies how liquids behave at their surfaces.
Dominique Langevin studies how liquids meet each other, or how a liquid meets a gas. This is called liquid interfaces. She also looks at interfacial rheology, which is about how matter flows at these meeting points. She is very interested in foams and emulsions (like mayonnaise or milk). She has helped us understand how the strength of these surfaces affects how stable foams and emulsions are.
She has also brought together many scientists and mathematicians. Together, they have helped the study of foams and emulsions grow. She has written books like Light Scattering by Liquid Surfaces and Complementary Techniques (1992) and Emulsions, microemulsions and foams (2020).
Contents
Early Life and Education
Dominique Anne-Marie Cruchon was born in Angoulême, France, in 1947. In 1969, she married Michel Langevin.
She earned her PhD from the École Normale Supérieure (ENS Sèvres) in Paris. She also did research at the Laboratory of Hertzian Spectroscopy. Later, she did more research at the Collège de France.
Her Career in Science
In the 1970s, Dominique Langevin started a group at the École Normale Supérieure to study surfactants. Surfactants are special chemicals that help liquids mix, like soap.
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. This is a group for scientists who study how tiny particles behave in liquids.
What She Researches
Dominique Langevin studies soft matter physics. This includes things like:
- The surface of liquid crystals (found in screens).
- Mixtures of surfactants and polymers (large molecules).
- How tiny particles called nanoparticles affect foams.
- How liquids drain from foams and soap films.
- The way surfaces behave in oil and water systems with very low tension.
Her work helps us understand why foams and emulsions are stable. This research is useful in many areas, such as:
- Making foods and medicines.
- Creating detergents and cleaning products.
- Developing construction materials.
- Fighting fires.
- Extracting minerals.
- Cleaning up pollution.
- Treating nuclear waste.
She has also worked with the European Space Agency (ESA). She led a team to study how foams behave in microgravity (like in space). This was part of an experiment called FOAM-C.
Awards and Recognition
Dominique Langevin has received many important awards for her scientific work:
- 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, from the European Commission.
- 2006: Légion d’honneur (a very high French award).
- 2005: L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. She received it for her important studies on detergents, emulsions, and foams.
- 2002: CNRS silver medal from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
- 2004: Gentler-Kastler Prize from French and German physics societies.
- 2001: Elected to the Academy of Europe.
- 1991: Grand prix de l’Académie des Sciences (a major award from the French Academy of Sciences).
See also
In Spanish: Dominique Langevin para niños
