Louis de Broglie
1892–1987, Dieppe, France, Louveciennes, France
French physicist who proposed the matter-wave hypothesis: every particle has an associated wave-like nature.
In his 1924 doctoral thesis, de Broglie boldly proposed that if light (thought of as a wave) could behave like a particle (the photon), then the electron (thought of as a particle) could likewise behave like a wave, with wavelength . The idea was experimentally confirmed in 1927 (electron diffraction through a crystal) and directly inspired Schrödinger to build his wave equation.
Nobel-winning work
De Broglie received the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics 'for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons'. In his 1924 thesis 'Recherches sur la théorie des quanta' he proposed that every particle has an associated wave of wavelength λ = h/p. Davisson–Germer and G. P. Thomson confirmed electron diffraction in 1927, and Schrödinger built wave mechanics on the idea in 1926.
Workplaces: University of Paris
France