Paul Langevin

Paul Langevin (1872 to 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. His engineering significance rests on two United States patents he held with Constantin Chilowsky in 1916 and 1917 for ultrasonic submarine detection, an early step toward sonar. He was a doctoral student of Pierre Curie. Outside the laboratory he was a founder of the Comite de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, a public opponent of fascism in the 1930s, and was held under house arrest by the Vichy government for most of World War II. He served as president of the Human Rights League from 1944 to 1946 and is entombed at the Pantheon.