Physicists from France

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Frenchs Physicists of all time. This list of famous Frenchs Physicists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Frenchs Physicists.

1. #1

   

   Pierre Curie

   1859 - 1906

   HPI 84.35114 langs

   Pierre Curie is most famous for his work with his wife, Marie Curie, in discovering the elements polonium and radium.

2. #2

   

   André-Marie Ampère

   1775 - 1836

   HPI 84.30105 langs

   André-Marie Ampère is most famous for his work in electromagnetism. He was the first to propose that electricity and magnetism are two...Read moreShow less

   André-Marie Ampère is most famous for his work in electromagnetism. He was the first to propose that electricity and magnetism are two aspects of the same phenomenon.

3. #3

   

   Henri Becquerel

   1852 - 1908

   HPI 84.07105 langs

   Henri Becquerel is most famous for discovering the phenomenon of radioactivity.

4. #4

   

   Louis de Broglie

   1892 - 1987

   HPI 82.0093 langs

   Louis de Broglie is most famous for his discovery of the wave-particle duality.

5. #5

   

   Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

   1736 - 1806

   HPI 80.8786 langs

   Charles-Augustin de Coulomb is most famous for his law of electrostatics. This law states that the magnitude of the electric force between...Read moreShow less

   Charles-Augustin de Coulomb is most famous for his law of electrostatics. This law states that the magnitude of the electric force between two point charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

6. #6

   

   Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis

   1792 - 1843

   HPI 78.8757 langs

   Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis was a French mathematician who is most famous for his work on the Coriolis effect.

7. #7

   

   Henry Cavendish

   1731 - 1810

   HPI 78.3584 langs

   Henry Cavendish is most famous for his experiments with electricity. He was the first person to measure the density of the Earth.

8. #8

   

   Léon Foucault

   1819 - 1868

   HPI 77.8970 langs

   Léon Foucault is most famous for his pendulum experiment. He used a pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.

9. #9

   

   Frédéric Joliot-Curie

   1900 - 1958

   HPI 77.5771 langs

   Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French nuclear physicist who, with his wife Irène Joliot-Curie, jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in...Read moreShow less

   Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French nuclear physicist who, with his wife Irène Joliot-Curie, jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. He was most famous for his work on artificial radioactivity.

10. #10

    

    Jean Baptiste Perrin

    1870 - 1942

    HPI 76.0281 langs

    Jean Baptiste Perrin was a French physicist who is most famous for his work in the field of atomic physics. He is credited with the...Read moreShow less

    Jean Baptiste Perrin was a French physicist who is most famous for his work in the field of atomic physics. He is credited with the discovery of the neutron, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926.