Pierre-Gilles de Gennes developed connections between the physics of polymers and liquid crystals, using ideas from critical phenomenon studies. Long molecules and orientationally ordered fluids can have large collective responses even when their microscopic constituents differ greatly. Scaling and order-parameter descriptions identify which large-scale behavior follows from symmetry and connectivity rather than detailed molecular chemistry. His account of soft matter emphasizes this ability to move useful physical ideas between seemingly different materials, while retaining the experimental phenomena that distinguish them.[ref]
Soft Matter by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. Nobel lecture, polymers, liquid crystals and collective soft-material behavior
A physicist who held the condensed matter physics chair at Collège de France from 1971 to 2004.[ref]
Professional profile of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. Independent professional identity
Portrait of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
. Dominique Morisseau, Laboratoire de Physique et d’Etude des Matériaux (LPEM), ESPCI Paris; 28 August 1998. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007) was a French physicist who made significant contributions to condensed matter physics, particularly in the fields of liquid crystals and polymers. He is best known for his work that helps to explain the behavior of complex materials and systems at the microscopic level.