Louis Néel (born 22.02.1904) is a French physicist and a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1953). He was born in Lyon. He graduated from the École Normale (1928). In 1928 — 45 he worked at the University of Strasbourg (professor from 1937), in 1945 — 76 he was professor at the University of Grenoble, and at the same time in 1957 — 71 director of the Atomic Centre and in 1971—76 president of the Polytechnic Institute in Grenoble.
His work was in the field of magnetism. He carried out important research on the theory of ferromagnetism, paramagnetism and antiferromagnetism. He predicted antiferromagnetism and the temperature at which it disappears (the Néel point), gave its theory, and introduced magnetic sublattices (1932). He explained (1948) the strong magnetism of ferrites by assuming that all the interactions in ferrites are antiferromagnetic in nature, and described the behaviour of new synthetic magnetic materials. In 1954 he developed a three-sublattice model of a magnet to explain the magnetic properties of rare-earth ferrites with the garnet structure. He carried out research on the theory of magnetic domains and discovered the effect of superparamagnetism. He developed the theory of metamagnetism. For his fundamental work on magnetism he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970. He developed a method of protecting ships from magnetic mines.
A member of many academies of sciences and learned societies, and a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958). President of the French Physical Society (1957) and president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1963 — 65).