Characterrelationship
Turnofferrorcorrection
WifeIrenaYorio-Curie Anerror481062hasbeenreported
Father-in-lawPierre·Curie Anerror5289216hasbeenreported
Mother-in-lawMarie·Curie YesError3675053hasbeenreported.
Life
JeanFrederickYorio-Curie,1900BorninParis,France,hegraduatedfromÉcoleSupérieuredePhysiqueetdeChimieIndustriellesdelaVilledeParis.In1925,hebecameMadameCurie'sassistantattheInstitutCurie.Soon,hefellinlovewithMrs.Curie'seldestdaughter,IreneCurie,andshortlyaftertheirmarriagein1926,thecouplealsochangedtheirsurnamesto"JorioCurie".AtMarie'sinsistence,Jeanobtainedabachelorofscience(baccalauréat)andadoctorofsciencedegreewhileengagedintheelectrochemicalanalysisofradioactiveelements.
DuringhistenureasalecturerattheParisAcademyofSciences,hecollaboratedwithhiswifeonthestudyofatomicstructure,focusingonatomicrays.TheyhavemissedtheNobelPrizetwice:
TheJoliot-Curiecouplefirstgotneutronsintheexperiment,buttheyfailedtoidentifythemcorrectlyandthehonorwasultimatelyattributedtoRutherford’sstudents.AboveChadwick,Chadwickwonthe1935NobelPrizeinPhysicsfordiscoveringneutrons.
TheJoliotsandCurieswerethefirsttoobtainpositronsintheexperiment,andbecauseoftheirfailuretocorrectlyidentifythem,thehonorwasfinallyattributedtoCarlDavidAnderson,whowasresponsiblefordiscoveringpositrons.Andwonthe1936NobelPrizeinPhysics.
However,becauseofthediscoveryofstableartificialradioactivity,theywonthe1935NobelPrizeinChemistry.
In1937,helefttheInstituteofRadiologyandbegantoserveasaprofessorattheFrenchAcademy,andparticipatedinthestudyofchainreactionsandnuclearreactionconditions.Hesuccessfullyuseduraniumandheavywatertoachievecontrollablenuclearfissiontogenerateenergy.YoriowasoneofthescientistsmentionedbyEinsteininhislettertoPresidentRoosevelt,andEinsteincalledhimoneoftheleadingscientistsinthechainreaction.However,theSecondWorldWargreatlyhinderedJoliot-Curie'sresearchbecausehebegantoholdadministrativepositionsafterthewar.
Anecdote
Beforehebecamefamous,somepeopleintheFrenchscientificcommunityridiculedhimasa"PrinceConsort"(en:PrinceConsort),thinkingthathewasmarriedThedaughterofMadameCuriewaswell-developed,andhiscombinationofhisownandhiswife'ssurnamesalsocausedalotofcriticism.MadameCurieusedtocomfortherson-in-lawforthis.
Surname
Theirsurnameis"Joliot-Curie"insteadof"JoliotCurie".InsomeChinesescientificandtechnologicalliteratureandphysicalmaterials,Joliot-Curie’sThesurnameistranslatedinto"JoliotCurie",thistranslationisnotaccurate;similarly,inEnglishandFrenchscientificliteratureandphysicalmaterials,therearealsoalotofuseof"JoliotCurie"insteadof"Joliot-Curie"Case.Inaddition,thereisalsoasayingthattheJoliots-Curiecouplearecalledthe"littleCuries".ThisusageisoftenusedasacolloquiallanguageinthefieldofphysicsinmainlandChina.Liandhiswife)aredifferent;EnglishandTraditionalChineseusedinHongKongandTaiwandonothavesuchastatement.However,inofficialpublicationsinmainlandChina,"Jolio-Curiecouple"ratherthan"LittleCuriecouple"areused.Thelatterisjustaninformalformulation.
Thesurname"Yorio-Curie"issimilartotheChinese"doublesurname(parentscombinedsurname)",butthedifferenceisthattheyareonly"couplesurnames"andtheirchildrendonotfollowtheirparentsLiansurname,thesurnameofthechildrenbeforemarriageis"Yorio".Amongthem,theirdaughterchangedhersurnameto"Langevin-Yorio"aftermarryingMichaelLangevin.
Influence
·Yorio-Curieisnotonlyafamousnuclearphysicistandchemist,butalsoafamousguardianofpeace.HewassympathetictotheChinesepeople.NotonlydidheactivelyparticipateintherescueofthephysicistZhaoZhongyaowhowasdetainedbytheUnitedStatesinJapanattheinvitationofthestudentQianSanqiang,healsosolemnlysuggestedtoMaoZedongthatChinashouldalsoengageinatomicbombs.ThisisMaoZedong’sdecision.Theonewhotouchedthemost.SeetheTVseries"Five-StarRedFlagFlyingintheWind"fordetails.
Yorio-CurietoldMaoZedongthattodefeattheatomicbomb,youmusthavestrength.ThisisthefirsttimethatMaoZedongpaidattentiontoJoliot-Curie’sproposalaftertheoutbreakoftheKoreanWarin1950afterMaoZedong’sfamousthesisthat“theatomicbombisapapertiger”whenhemetwithStrongin1946,anddeterminedtodevelopatomicenergyscience.