Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908)

Awarded the Prize “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity.”

French physicist. Becquerel was born in Paris on December 15, 1852. He obtained his doctorate in 1888. In 1899 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences. In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Applied Physics in the Department of Natural History at the Paris Museum. He became Professor at the Polytechnic in 1895. Becquerel died at Le Croisic on August 25, 1908.