Michel Soutif

Michel Soutif
Michel Soutif 2002 (photo S. Claisse, ILL)
Born	Michel Soutif (1921-07-08)8 July 1921 Paris, France
Died	28 June 2016(2016-06-28) (aged 94) Meylan, Isère, France.
Nationality	French
Fields	Physics
Spouses	Jeanne Guicherd Ruth Haas (died 2015)

Michel Soutif (8 July 1921 – 28 June 2016), Officier de la Légion d’honneur, Grand officier de l’ordre national du Mérite, was a French scientist known for his work on centimetre wavelength radiation (microwaves) and electron spin resonance.^[1] He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), and, on completing his thesis, was invited by Louis Néel to a post at the University of Grenoble, where he established the Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique. His success in obtaining teaching posts and in reinforcing the discipline of physics at the University of Grenoble is remarkable. He was recognized not only for his scientific achievements, but also for the outstanding clarity of his teaching and for his desire to spread scientific reason. These were talents that, in the positions of responsibility and decision that he occupied during his career, propelled him to become one of the principal architects of the growth of the University.

Upbringing and Education

Michel Soutif was the son of Elise Baudoin and Edmond Soutif, assistant director at the Ministry of Finances, who was in charge of finances of the Paris hospitals.

Michel was educated at the Lycée Michelet (Vanves), and then, in preparation for the grandes écoles competition examinations, he attended Lycée Saint-Louis, which, at the outbreak of World War II was evacuated to the Lycée des Filles in Tournon. Imprudently (in view of the consequences at that time of failing an entrance examination), and contrary to received practice, Soutif applied to only one of the grandes écoles, the ENS. He was successful, entering in 1942, and went on to graduate first out of his class.

Conditions in occupied Paris during the war were not easy, even dangerous, as many students at the ENS were active in the résistance. The Soutif family lived in an apartment in Boulevard St Michel, and Soutif's father was, not incorrectly, suspected of involvement. The climate of arbitrariness and uncertainty that prevailed during that period is illustrated by the fact that on returning from ENS one afternoon in 1944, the young Soutif was intercepted by the concièrge who warned him that the Gestapo was searching the family apartment and that he must stay out of sight. The Gestapo officer conducted his search of the rooms and his interrogation of Edmond Soutif, using as a support for his notes the folder taken from the writing desk in the apartment. Unable to discover incriminating evidence, they eventually left. But had he only opened the folder, the officer would have found the letters that would certainly have condemned to death not only Soutif's family, but also their correspondents. The event served to strengthen Soutif's conviction at the end of the war of the need for peace and collaboration between the nations.

During his doctoral thesis at the ENS, Michel Soutif founded the high frequency laboratory SACM (societé alsacienne de constructions mécaniques), later to become Alcatel. With the help of the Centre national d'études des télécommunications (CNET) he built the first Hertzian telephone link connecting Mont Boron (Nice) with Corsica. From these beginnings in 1948, upon Soutif's arrival in the general physics laboratory in Grenoble, a branch of Alcatel dedicated to research into centimetre wavelength radiation was established there. Its generous financing enabled the purchase of a substantial part of the scientific equipment for all the groups in what was later to become the Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique.

The invitation by Néel extended to Soutif in 1951 to come to Grenoble was a response to the loss of time and resources that had been wasted by the war for science in France, and to the urgency of discovering the properties of matter through the widest range of possible techniques. On his arrival in Grenoble, Soutif found little equipment in the general physics laboratory, but succeeded in recovering an electromagnet from Bordeaux that, inconveniently, required a high current. For the power supply, batteries were salvaged from a captured German submarine and he was then faced with the problem of finding an electrical generator to recharge them. Through such improvisation and persuasion he was able to build up a viable laboratory in the following years and attract young research workers recently graduated from the ENS. In 1958 he became head of the General Physics Laboratory. The Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique was founded in 1966.

In this period, Soutif was instrumental in the expansion of physics teaching at the Université Scientifique et Médicale de Grenoble^[2] as well as at the Centre Universitaire de Savoie^[3] in Chambery. He also encouraged the staff of the laboratory to participate in the Franco-German high flux reactor Institut Laue-Langevin project that was under construction at the same time on the opposite side of Grenoble. This project was inspired by Louis Néel and Erwin Lewy-Berthaut from Grenoble, and Heinz Maier-Leibnitz from the Technische Hochschule München, Germany. This international institute, of which Great Britain later became an associate, was to prove a major driving force in the scientific development of Grenoble. in 1971 Soutif became president of the Université Scientifique et Médicale de Grenoble. In the 1980s a major new scientific player entered the Grenoble scene: the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), which produced its first X-ray beams in 1992. The original decision had been made to locate this powerful light source in Strasbourg. Soutif played an important role in presenting the scientific case to the political authorities, notably Louis Mermaz, to reconsider in favour of Grenoble. The latter choice was finally confirmed by the President of the Republic, François Mitterrand. Michel Soutif, mandated to gauge the opinion of the President of the German Republic on this matter, met with a favourable response.

After his retirement, Soutif turned his attention to and authored several books on the history and the development of science, notably on the contribution of Asia and particularly China.

Publications

La Spectroscopie hertzienne, Dunod (1960).^[4]

Physique neutronique, Presses Universitaires de France (1962).^[5]

Vibrations, Propagation, Diffusion, Dunod Université (1970).^[6]

L'Asie, source de sciences et de techniques, EDP Sciences (1995).^[7]

Naissance de la physique, de la Sicile à la Chine, EDP Sciences (2002).^[8]

Grenoble, carrefour des sciences et de l'industrie, Collection Les Patrimoines - édition Dauphiné Libéré (2005)^[9]

Fondements des civilisations de l'Asie, EDP Sciences - Collection: Sciences et Histoire (2009).^[10]

Naissance et diffusion de la physique, EDP Sciences (2014).^[11]

Prizes

Hughes Prize and Petit d’Ormoy Prize of the Académie des sciences

Robin Prize of the Société française de physique^[12] (1966)

Three Physicists Prize of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (1979)

Grand prix de la coopération scientifique Franco-chinoise de la République populaire de Chine

Villemot Prize of the Académie des sciences.^[13] (2004)

References