Louis Leprince-Ringuet; French Specialist in Particle Physics

Louis Leprince-Ringuet, 99, one of the fathers of French nuclear physics and a top specialist in particle physics. Leprince-Ringuet was a member of the Academy of Sciences and of the Academie Francaise, an elite society of France’s top minds whose members are entrusted with safeguarding French language and culture. He was a prolific author, whose works included “Cosmic Rays,” “Of Atoms and Man” and “Science and the Happiness of Man.” Leprince-Ringuet was born March 27, 1901, in Arles in southern France. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1920 and received a doctorate in 1933. In 1959, he was named the College of France’s chairman of nuclear physics. He was hoping to become the Academie Francaise’s first centenarian. His death was mourned by French President Jacques Chirac, who said that France “has lost one of its greatest minds.” On Dec. 23 at his home in Paris.