Alexandre Dufour

Alexandre Eugène Dufour (13th arrondissement of Paris, 8 May 1875 – 19 June 1942) was a French physicist, nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Alexandre Eugène Dufour
Born	8 May 1875 13th arrondissement of Paris
Died	19 July 1942
Nationality	French
Scientific career
Fields	Physics

Biography

He was born in Paris to Jules César Dufour, a blacksmith, and Maria Caroline Frontigny.

He attended the primary school of la Tombe-Issoire. He then attended the Lavoisier school (1888–1893) and then the Chaptal college. He graduated in science and became a professor of physics in 1899. He obtained his doctorate and became a doctor of science in 1906.^[1]

He was a preparatory teacher at the Ecole normale supérieure between 1900 and 1903. He became a professor at the lycée de Chartres (1903–1904) and then at the lycée Louis-le-Grand (1904–1920). During the same period, he was the tutor of the general physics course at the Ecole Centrale from 1909. He became an assistant professor (1919–1922), then a full professor at the Ecole Centrale (1923). He succeeded Georges Sagnac as a physics teacher for the PCN certificate (1st year of medical studies) at the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris at the beginning of the 1920 school year. In 1927, he obtained the position of professor, without a chair until 1931 when he was appointed full professor in a personal capacity at the Faculty of Science of Paris (1931–1942).^[2][3]

He married on November 24, 1904 in Marseille with Marguierite, Emilie, Maria Tissot with whom he had a son and a daughter.^[1]

A group of marginal scientists, defenders of pseudoscientific theories, such as anti-Darwinism, created a group that bore his name Cercle de physique Alexandre-Dufour.^[4] This group met at the Centraliens house from 1949 to 1983. Among its members was René-Louis Vallée, the inventor of synergic physics.^[5]

Scientific contributions

He is the inventor of the cathode ray oscillograph, describing the process in 1914, before publishing the details of the device in 1920.^[6]

He worked on the spectra of hydrogen and on the action of hydrogen on silicon and silica.^[7]

Honours

• On 14 February 1921 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.^[8]
• In 1922 he was awarded the Clément Fèlix Prize.^[1]
• In 1924 he was awarded the Hughes Prize.^[1]
• In 1916 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics.^[9]