Antoine Henri Becquerel
(
December_15,
1852 -
August_25,
1908) was a French
physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity.
Becquerel was born in Paris into a scientific family which, including him and his son, produced four generations of scientists. He studied science at the ''
École_Polytechnique'' and engineering the ''
École des Ponts et Chaussées''. In 1892 he became the third in his family to occupy the physics chair at the ''
Muséum_National_d'Histoire_Naturelle''. In 1894 he became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways.
In
1896, Becquerel accidentally discovered
radioactivity while investigating
phosphorescence in
uranium salts. In
1903 he shared the
Nobel_prize for
Physics with
Pierre and
Marie_Curie "''in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity''".
In 1908, the year of his death, he was elected permanent secretary of the Académie des Sciences. He died at the age of 55 in Le Croisic.
The
SI_unit for radioactivity, the
becquerel (Bq) is named after him.
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