Joliot-Curie, Fr�d�ric, originally Jean-Fr�d�ric Joliot 1900-58
French physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Paris, he studied under Paul Langevin at the Sorbonne, and in 1925 he joined the Radium Institute under Marie Curie, where he studied the electrochemical properties of polonium. He married Marie's daughter Ir�ne Joliot-Curie in 1926, and in 1935 he shared with his wife the Nobel Prize for chemistry for making the first artificial radio isotope. Professor at the Coll�ge de France (1937), he became a strong supporter of the Resistance movement during World War II, and a member of the Communist Party. After the liberation he became director of scientific research and (1946-50) High Commissioner for atomic energy, a position from which he was dismissed for his political activites. He succeeded his wife as head of the Radium Institute, and as president of the Communist-sponsored World Peace Council, he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize (1951). Commander of the Legion of Honour, he was given a state funeral by the Gaullist government when he died from cancer, caused by lifelong exposure to radioactivity.

Bibliography: Maurice Goldman, Fr�d�ric Joliot-Curie (1976)