Yves Rocard

Infobox Scientist
name = Yves Rocard
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caption = Yves Rocard
birth_date = 22 May 1903
birth_place = Vannes
death_date = 16 March 1992
death_place = Paris
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nationality = French
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field = physics
work_institutions = École normale supérieure
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known_for = atomic bomb
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Yves-André Rocard (Vannes, 22 May 1903 – 16 March 1992 in Paris) was a French physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb for France.

After obtaining a double doctorate in mathematics (1927) and physics (1928) he was awarded the professorship in electronic physics at the École normale supérieure in Paris.

As a member of a Resistance group during the Second World War he flew to England in a small plane as part of a dangerous mission, and was able to provide British intelligence with invaluable information. There he met up with Charles de Gaulle who named him Director of Research in the Forces navales françaises libres (the Navy of Free France). He became particularly interested in the detection of solar radio emissions by English Radar, which were causing military problems by jamming detection during periods of high emission, and was able to create a new radio navigational beam station.

After the war, he returned to France and became head of the physics department at the ENS. Whilst there he founded a radio observatory, having obtained two German "Wurzburg" Radar mirrors from the war.

From 1947 he became scientific advisor to the French military on the subject of atomic energy, eventually taking over from Frédéric Joliot-Curie after his dismissal. In 1951, he became scientific head of the programme that eventually led to the development of nuclear arms, and is often known as the father of the French A-Bomb and H-bomb.

Later in his career he studied subjects ranging from semiconductors to seismology. Eventually his professional reputation became tarnished by his increased research in less conventional subjects such as biomagnetism, dowsing and UFOs.

He was awarded the British CBE (1946), and the French Legion of Honour and Order of Merit.

He is the father of Michel Rocard, prime minister of France between 1988 and 1991.

On his death in 1992, Yves Rocard was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Works

* L'hydrodynamique et la théorie cinétique des gaz. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1932.
* Diffusion de la lumière et visibilité, projecteurs, feux, instruments d'observation. Paris, 1935.
* Propagation et absorption du son. Paris: Hermann, 1935.
* La stabilité de route des locomotives. Paris: Hermann, 1935.
* Les phénomènes d'auto-oscillation dans les installations hydrauliques. Paris: Hermann, 1937.
* Théorie des oscillateurs. Paris, 1941.
* Dynamique générale des vibrations. Paris: Masson, 1951.
* Le signal du sourcier (Dunod 1962).
* Electricité. Paris: Masson, 1966.
* Thermodynamique. Paris: Masson, 1967
* L'instabilité en mécanique; automobiles, avions, ponts suspendus. Paris: Masson, 1954.
* Mémoires sans concessions. Paris: Grasset, 1988.
* La science et les sourciers; baguettes, pendules, biomagnétisme. Paris: (Dunod 1989, ISBN 2-10-002996-7)
* La stabilité de route des locomotives, with Julien, M. Paris: Hermann, 1935.
* Les Sourciers (Que sais-je, n° 1939, ISBN 2-13-043539-4).
* Cabannes (Jean) - La diffusion moléculaire de la lumière - in participation with Yves Rocard, PUF, 1931.