About the Author
P. G. De Gennes is Professor of Physics at the Collége de France. He is also the director of the Ecole de Physique et Chimie in Paris. He studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and has served as a research engineer at the Atomic Energy Saclay and as a post-doctoral visitor at the University of California, Berkeley. De Gennes has also been a Professor of Physics at the University of Orsay and is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Dutch Academy of Science. He is the author of three books. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991.