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{{Short description|French crystallographer and neutron scientist (1913-2003)}}
{{AfC submission|t||ts=20230606104906|u=AvdL34|ns=118|demo=}}<!-- Important, do not remove this line before article has been created. -->{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
⚫ | birth_date = 9 February 1913
| birth_place = Leobschütz (Germany) | image =
| death_date = 6 November 2003 | name = Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut
| death_place = Grenoble (France) | birth_name = Erwin Lewy
| alt = Félix Bertaut
⚫ | birth_date = {{birth_date|1913|2|9}}
| birth_place = ], Germany
| death_date = {{death_date_and_age|2003|11|6 |1913|2|9}}
| death_place = ], France
| nationality = French | nationality = French
| education = ]<br>]<br>]<br>]
⚫ | doctoral_advisor = Louis Néel
| workplaces = ]<br>]
| known_for = Bertaut-Warren-Averbach law on the granulometry of powders
⚫ | doctoral_advisor = ]
Magnetic orders and structures of rare earth ferrite garnets
| thesis_title = Etude aux rayons X des dimensions des domaines de Bragg dans les poudres polycristallines. Application à l'étude de la texture et structure de poudres de fer pyrophoriques et de leurs propriétés magnétiques
Impulse and strong contribution to the setting up of the European Institut Laue- Langevin
| thesis_url = https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/nrI50AEACAAJ?hl=en
| thesis_year = 1953
| known_for = magnetic crystallography<br>]<br>]
| awards = Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Commandeur de l’Ordre national du mérite | awards = Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Commandeur de l’Ordre national du mérite
Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universities of Genève, Xanthi Francfort, Uppsala, Helsinki
}} }}
'''Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut''' (9 February 1913 – 6 November 2003), also known separately as '''Erwin Lewy''', '''Félix Bertaut''', and '''E. F. Bertaut''', or '''Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut''', was a German-born French materials scientist who led a former life as a law school student in ]. He was renowned internationally for his work in magnetic crystallography,<ref name=magrev>{{Cite journal |last=Perez-Mato |first=J.M. |last2=Gallego |first2=S.V. |last3=Tasci |first3=E.S. |last4=Elcoro |first4=L. |last5=de la Flor |first5=G. |last6=Aroyo |first6=M.I. |date=2015-07-01 |title=Symmetry-Based Computational Tools for Magnetic Crystallography |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-matsci-070214-021008 |journal=Annual Review of Materials Research |language=en |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=217–248 |doi=10.1146/annurev-matsci-070214-021008 |issn=1531-7331}}</ref> ], and ]. He was a research director at ], a member of the ] and played an important role in the creation of ], a leading neutron research facility in the world.<ref name=iucr>{{Cite journal |last=De Bergevin |first=F. |last2=Hodeau |first2=J. L. |last3=Schweizer |first3=J. |date=2004-04-01 |title=Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003) |url=https://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S0021889804004376 |journal=Journal of Applied Crystallography |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=349–350 |doi=10.1107/S0021889804004376 |issn=0021-8898}}</ref><ref name=physcript>{{Cite journal |last=Férey |first=Gérard |last2=Hodeau |first2=Jean-Louis |date=2015-02-01 |title=The life and achievements of Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003) |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-8949/90/2/028001 |journal=Physica Scripta |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=028001 |doi=10.1088/0031-8949/90/2/028001 |issn=0031-8949}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CTHS - LEWY Erwin dit Félix BERTAUT |url=https://cths.fr/an/savant.php?id=111797 |website=cths.fr}}</ref>
Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut, born on 9 February 1913 in ] (Poland, then Germany) and died on 6 November 2003 in ], France, was a French scientist renowned internationally for his work in the fields of neutron scattering and crystallography.


== Biography ==
Born Erwin Lewy in Silesia (then in Germany), he received a traing as a lawyer. As his family was Jewish, when the Nazis came to power he left Germany for France, becoming a French citizen in 1936 and starting a scientific career as a chemical engineer. At the start of the Second World War, he joined the French army and, following the defeat of 1940, his military commander gave him the papers of a deceased soldier and a new identity: Félix Bertaut. His family, whom he had brought to Bordeaux, were arrested and disappeared into the camps in Germany. He then went to Paris and Grenoble to work with ], where he learned about solid state chemistry and ] and became a crystallographer and a physicist of magnetism. He also became a pioneer in neutron diffraction and, with Louis Néel, played a leading role in the creation of the European research institute ] (Institut Laue-Langevin). He was a man of great culture and the impact of his scientific studies meant that he held positions of responsibility in the main international crystallography and physics organisations. He was a member of the French ].
Lewy-Bertaut was born with the name Erwin Lewy to Jewish parents in ] of ] (then in Germany). The year 1930 marked a significant shift as his mother passed away, prompting their entire family's relocation to ] amidst an era of economic turmoil and the ascent of Nazism. Following this, in 1931, Lewy embarked on his legal studies first at the ] and subsequently in ] (now ]). As Hitler's ascendancy to power unfurled in Germany, instituting a "]" that effectively precluded Jewish individuals from university access, Lewy-Bertaut left for ]. There, the Rothschild Foundation awarded him a scholarship, facilitating his enrollment at the ], where Lewy-Bertaut studied chemical engineering, physics, and mathematics. After graduation, Lewy-Bertaut undertook roles as a mathematics and German tutor and acquired French citizenship in 1936. In 1938, Lewy-Bertaut worked as an engineer at Institut du pin and joined the French army as a ] near Bordeaux. At the onset of the conflict in 1940, Colonel Faure entrusted him with the military records of a missing soldier, Félix Bertaut, and he adopted this name permanently.<ref name=iucr></ref><ref name=hom>{{Cite journal |last=Sayetat |first=Françoise |date=2006 |title=Hommage à E.-F. Bertaut |url=http://www.refletsdelaphysique.fr/10.1051/refdp/200615504 |journal=Bulletin de la Société Française de Physique |issue=155 |pages=24–25 |doi=10.1051/refdp/200615504 |issn=0037-9360}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2003-11-13 |title=Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut, cristallographe |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/13/erwin-felix-lewy-bertaut-cristallographe_341796_1819218.html |website=Le Monde |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=who></ref>


Lewy-Bertaut worked as a chemical engineer between 1941 and 1943 to enhance the durability of bicycle brakes crafted from agglomerated cork. To elude police inspections and evade mandatory labor service, he went to Paris, where he collaborated with Marcel Mathieu at the Laboratoire Central des Poudres.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marbach |first=Christian |date=2016-06-01 |title=Pour les sciences |url=http://journals.openedition.org/sabix/1660 |journal=Bulletin de la Sabix |issue=59 |pages=25–36 |doi=10.4000/sabix.1660 |issn=2114-2130}}</ref> Subsequently, he partnered with Emmanuel Grison, who tutored him in the utilization of the ]. Regrettably, a bicycle registration check by the police led to his summons to the Paris Prefecture. Lewy-Bertaut moved to Grenoble in the Italian-occupied zone to meet Louis Néel, who was temporarily withdrawn from the ] and has founded the ] (LEPM, now Institut Néel) in 1946, which was the first ] laboratory outside the Paris region. Lewy-Bertaut also took over Erwin Lewy's qualifications in 1946 and obtained a research grant from the ] under his wartime identity, "Félix Bertaut". Lewy-Bertaut eventually finished his thesis under Louis Néel in 1953 and ] was also an examiner. His thesis involves X-ray diffraction studies of powder granulometry, which later became known as the Bertaut-Warren-Averbach method.<ref name=hahn>{{Cite journal |last=Hahn |first=Theo |date=2004-04-01 |title=Félix Bertaut, space groups and the International Tables for Crystallography |url=https://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S0021889804004443 |journal=Journal of Applied Crystallography |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=350–351 |doi=10.1107/S0021889804004443 |issn=0021-8898}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leoni |first=M. |date=2019 |title=The Warren–Averbach method and its variations |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/iucr/itc/Ha/ch3o6v0001/sec3o6o2o3/ |journal=urn:isbn:978-1-118-41628-0 |language=en |volume=H |pages=288–303 |doi=10.1107/97809553602060000951}}</ref> Immediately after his thesis, Lewy-Bertaut started establishing his group at the LEPM that formed the basis of the X-ray department to carry out research in ], along with Francis Forrat and Professor René Pauthenet, distinguished themselves with their work on garnet ferrites, from which the theory of antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism was built up.<ref name=hom></ref>
== From Erwin Lewy to Félix Bertaut (1913 - 1946) ==
Erwin Lewy grew up in a traditional Jewish family. In 1930, his mother died and the whole family moved to Gleiwitz in an atmosphere of economic crisis and the rise of Nazism. In 1931, Erwin Lewy studied law in Freiburg and then in Breslau (now Wrocław). He was twenty when ] came to power in Germany, where a "numerus clausus" virtually banned Jews from attending university. Lewy was attacked by a Hitler youth group. This atmosphere of violence and the reading of ] made him aware of the seriousness of the situation. Deeply francophile, he decided to emigrate to Paris in France. In the end, however, he went to Bordeaux, where he was awarded a scholarship from the Rothschild Foundation and enrolled at university. There he obtained a degree in chemical engineering as well as a degree in physics and mathematics. The future Nobel Prize winner ]<ref>Alfred Kastler, Nobel laureate for physics in 1994 “”.</ref> was one of his teachers. To supplement his income, he gave lessons in mathematics and German, and had as a pupil the future academician ].


In 1949, Lewy-Bertaut read a one-page publication<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shull |first1=C. G. |last2=Smart |first2=J. S. |year=1949 |title=Detection of Antiferromagnetism by Neutron Diffraction |journal=Physical Review |volume=76 |issue=8 |pages=1256–1257 |bibcode=1949PhRv...76.1256S |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.76.1256.2}}</ref> by ] and J. Samuel Smart, which recovered the magnetic structure of ] from ] and validated Louis Néel's work on ]. In 1953, Lewy-Bertaut secured a Fulbright grant to visit Raymond Pepinski's laboratory at ] and accessed the neutron diffraction facilities at the ], where he acquainted himself with neutron experiments under the guidance of Lester Corliss and Julius Hastings. Upon returning to Grenoble, Lewy-Bertaut was placed in charge of the development of the military facility Polygone d'Artillerie (now ]) into a neutron research center, which later became the ], an international research facility collaboratively funded by the French and German governmental agencies.<ref name=iucr></ref> Lewy-Bertaut was CNRS research director in 1956 and the scientific director of CNRS in 1961.<ref name=who>{{Cite web |title=Biographie de Erwin Lewy-bertaut pseudo.*: BERTAUT, Chercheur scientifique, Membre de l´Institut - Who's Who |url=https://www.whoswho.fr/biographie/erwin-lewy-bertaut-15912 |website=www.whoswho.fr |language=fr}}</ref>
Erwin Lewy obtained French nationality in 1936 and in February 1939, aware of the danger of Nazism, he brought his family to live with him in Talence near Bordeaux. Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, he interrupted his initial doctoral work on rosin to enlist as a volunteer in the French army. When the war broke out in 1940, Colonel Faure gave him the military record book of a missing soldier, Félix Bertaut. This was to be his only identity document for a long time and, faithful to this unknown Frenchman who enabled him to conceal his identity, he kept this name for good. He was hired as a chemical engineer in the unoccupied zone in ], where he worked on improving the strength of bicycle brakes made from agglomerated cork, which was important because bicycles were almost the only means of transport available at the time. The French police in the free zone were under orders from Vichy, and Félix Bertaut was unable to prevent the Nazis from kidnapping his family and his rabbi father in Bordeaux, who disappeared into the concentration camps; he would only learn in 1978 that they had been deported to Auschwitz, via Drancy.

To avoid police checks and escape the Obligatory Labour Service, he was forced to go to Paris, where Alfred Kastler suggested he join Marcel Mathieu at the Laboratoire Central des Poudres (L.C.P.). He then worked with Emmanuel Grison - the future director of the Centre Atomique de Saclay - who taught him how to use the Tables Internationales pour la Détermination des Structures (International Tables for the Determination of Structures). This was his first contact with crystallography. However, following an unfortunate police check on the registration number of his bicycle, he was summoned to the Paris Prefecture. Following Marcel Mathieu's recommendations, the next day he took the train with a mission order signed by the director of the L.C.P. to Grenoble, then in the Italian-occupied zone, to visit the future Nobel Prize winner Louis Néel<ref>Louis Néel, Nobel laureate for physics in 1970 “”.</ref>, who was also temporarily withdrawn from the University of Strasbourg. Louis Néel was continuing his work on magnetism<ref>L. Néel, ]; ''ibid.'' ].</ref>, begun in ]'s laboratory. His team of researchers (most of whom had emigrated from occupied France) included Jacques Mehring, who had also come from the L.C.P., Robert Forrer, Noël Felici and Louis Weil. Félix Bertaut's knowledge of crystallography proved invaluable to the group, who worked in the Institut Fourier at Grenoble's Faculty of Science, where he and Jacques Mehring built a rudimentary X-ray machine.

After the war, it was with the help of this team that Louis Néel founded the Laboratoire d'Electrostatique et de Physique du Métal (L.E.P.M.) in 1946, which was the first CNRS laboratory outside the Paris region. It included electrostatics under N. Felici, very low temperatures under L. Weil, magnetism under L. Néel and X-ray diffraction under E. F. Bertaut. Félix Bertaut, who had arrived in 1943 before the Liberation "without any qualifications", took over Erwin Lewy's qualifications in 1946 and obtained a research grant from the ] (CNRS) under his wartime identity, "Félix Bertaut".

== Félix Bertaut and crystallography (1946-2003) ==
In 1946, Félix Bertaut chose a new subject for his doctoral thesis: "X-ray studies of the dimensions of Bragg domains in polycrystalline powders. - Application to the study of the texture and structure of pyrophoric iron powders and their magnetic properties". In this thesis work, he first distinguished between the size of the grains themselves and their distribution<ref>F. Bertaut (1949a) C.R. Acad. Sci. '''228''', 492 ; ''ibid.'' (1949b) C.R. Acad. Sci''.'' '''228''', 187 ; ''ibid.'' (1950) ]; ''ibid.'' (1952) ].  </ref>. This knowledge of the grain size of iron powders was necessary for Louis Néel's magnetism studies, as Louis Weil had just succeeded in synthesising iron powders with small particles that are good materials for permanent magnets. Part of this thesis had an industrial outlet because these excellent iron-based magnets, produced by the local industry UGINE using waste from the buttons of the company ARaymond, were used in particular in bicycle dynamos.

Félix Bertaut submitted his thesis in 1949, with the great crystallographer André Guinier as rapporteur. At the time, this work was a highly original use of X-ray diffraction, and this type of X-ray diffraction study of powder granulometry has since developed considerably, but the method established by Bertaut and at the same time by Warren and Averbach<ref>B.E. Warren & B.L. Averbach (1950). ] & ''ibid.'' (1952) ],</ref> , known as the Bertaut-Warren-Averbach method, remains a classic and a cornerstone of this discipline.

Immediately after his thesis, Félix Bertaut developed the group at the L.E.P.M. that formed the basis of the X-ray department to carry out research in ], a science that enables the atomic arrangements in solids to be determined using X-ray diffraction, with the aim of establishing the relationship between crystalline structure and magnetic properties. Next, Félix Bertaut and his group, along with Francis Forrat and Professor René Pauthenet, distinguished themselves with their work on garnet ferrites<ref>R. Pauthenet and P. Blum, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris (1954) '''239''', 33; F. Bertaut and F. Forrat, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris (1956) '''242''', 382.</ref>, from which the theory of antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism was built up. These garnets were the symbol of the joint work of L. Néel, F. Bertaut and R. Pauthenet: this is why E.F. Lewy-Bertaut had them engraved on his sword as an Academician. These ferrites are currently important materials for magnetic recording and microwave electronics (such as mobile phones).

E.F. Bertaut was involved in several other aspects of crystallography. He solved the structure of complex compounds such as the non-stoichiometric pyrrhotite, Fe<sub>1-x</sub>S<ref>E.F. Bertaut (1953) ].</ref>. He developed what is known as structure factor algebra<ref>E.F. Bertaut (1956) ]; (1957) ]; (1959) ]; (1959) ].</ref>. He made an enormous contribution to neutron crystallography. He extended the use of group theory in crystallography, particularly for magnetic structures<ref>E.F. Bertaut (1968) ].</ref>. When the ] (IUCr) decided to finalise the volume on the symmetry of space groups in the International Tables of Crystallography, he was a member of the ad hoc committee and contributed in particular to the definition of magnetic groups<ref>E.F. Bertaut and H. Wondratschek (1971) ].</ref>. He used the symmetry of crystals to propose all possible magnetic structures. This "Bertaut method" was very useful for complex structures, and even more so before the availability of computers. Of course, his students had to apply this method anyway. At the same time, he did not forget his training as a chemist and, in 'his' two laboratories, chemical syntheses of new materials continually fed into crystallographic studies, mainly for a better understanding of magnetism. One of his merits is that he was able to maintain close contact between theory and experimental applications.

In 1971 (just after Louis Néel was awarded the Nobel Prize for his studies of antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism and their applications), the L.E.P.M. laboratory moved next to the new Centre d'Etude Nucléaire de Grenoble (C.E.N.G.), also created by L. Néel, on the former "Polygone" military site, giving rise to a group of C. N.R.S. laboratories. E.F. Bertaut, who was appointed ''Maître de Recherche'' and then ''Directeur de Recherches'' at the CNRS, was its director from 1971 to 1982, until he took an "active retirement", where he continued his research work, as a referee for scientific journals on crystallography and as an Academician.

In 2007, along with the Centre de Recherche sur les Très Basses Températures (CRTBT), the Laboratoire de Magnétisme and the Laboratoire d'Etudes des propriétés Electroniques (LEPES), this crystallography laboratory will be one of the building blocks of the Institut Néel at the C.N.R.S. - U.G.A.

== Erwin Félix Bertaut and neutrons ==
In 1949, Félix Bertaut's research was turned upside down by a one-page publication<ref>C.G. Shull and J.S. Smart, ].</ref> in "]" by two Americans, Shull (later to win a Nobel Prize<ref>B.N. Brockhouse & C.G. Shull, Nobel laureate for physics in 1994 "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter" to B.N. Brockhouse "for the development of neutron spectroscopy" and to C.G. Shull "for the development of the neutron diffraction"</ref> for this study) and Smart, which revealed the first magnetic structure obtained by neutron diffraction in manganese oxide MnO. The hypotheses formulated 15 years earlier by Louis Néel on antiferromagnetism were verified: magnetic orders could be observed in "neutron diffraction images". Louis Néel was enthusiastic and planned to build a neutron reactor in Grenoble. To this end, Félix Bertaut travelled to the United States in 1951, and then (after lengthy procedures due to ]) received a Fulbright grant in 1953 to continue his research in the United States for a year, where he joined Ray Pepinski's laboratory at State College in Pennsylvania. Pepinski gave him access to the Brookhaven atomic centre, where he visited the neutron diffraction facilities of Lester Corliss and Julius Hastings and learned about neutron techniques.

For some time, France and General De Gaulle had been in favour of setting up a nuclear research centre, and in 1955 Louis Néel, a reserve admiral who had the confidence of the French Army, provided decisive arguments (scientific themes and techniques) for the establishment of a Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires à Grenoble (C.E.N.G.) on the "Polygone" site. L. Néel bought the military land at the Polygone d'Artillerie for a symbolic 1 franc to create the Nuclear Research Centre, which he would direct. He asked E.F. Bertaut to set up a Neutron Diffraction Laboratory dedicated to crystallographic studies using neutron beams. E.F. Bertaut was in charge from 1958 to 1976, and from 1958 W. Koehler and L. Corliss joined him to introduce Grenoble researchers to neutron diffraction and design the first diffractometer. This and the next were installed at the Mélusine reactor (8 MW), followed by two others at the Siloe reactor (35 MW). This laboratory was the crucible for a generation of scientists familiar with neutrons, who would also work with the Centre de Saclay. It was also at this time that E.F. Bertaut, F. Forrat, P. Blum and R. Pauthenet made their mark with the discovery and study of garnet ferrites6-7, now essential materials for magnetic memories and high-frequency electronics. E.F. Bertaut and his laboratories gained international renown in crystallography, neutron diffraction and magnetism.

The international reputation of the Grenoble laboratories and E.F. Bertaut in crystallography, neutron diffraction and magnetism led to the first international conference on neutron scattering being held in Grenoble in 1963. It was during the banquet at this conference that the construction of a European high-flux neutron reactor was first suggested by Néel in a speech prepared by E.F. Bertaut.

Then, with the support of L. Néel, E.F. Bertaut promoted the project and convinced his German collaborators. He was certainly convincing - and it was the right idea at the right time, since the French and German peoples, under the leadership of De Gaulle and Adenauer, were at that time re-establishing friendly relations. So on 22 January 1963, the "Elysée Treaty" signed by Federal Chancellor ] and the President of the French Republic, ], launched Franco-German cooperation. E. F. Bertaut was deeply pleased with this Franco-German collaboration and worked relentlessly to forge closer links with German crystallographers and chemists. He will be one of the ambassadors of the High Flux Reactor project, giving it scientific applications and a Franco-German support community. The success of neutron techniques enabled L. Néel and E. F. Bertaut to propose and obtain the construction of the Franco-German High Flux Reactor (ILL) in Grenoble in 1967.

This led to the creation of the high-flux neutron reactor. Grenoble was considered a major centre for magnetism under L. Néel and a capital of neutron diffraction under F. Bertaut, so the institute was built in Grenoble. Its name "Institut Laue-Langevin" (ILL) expresses the combination of crystallography and magnetism. Initially Franco-German, the ILL became European and was a key partner in the construction of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble. This source of synchrotron radiation is used in a variety of fields including biology, medicine, chemistry, magnetism, high pressure, materials science via crystallography (and among its many applications) magnetic nanostructures, etc.

The ILL has now taken over from Grenoble's first reactors, and Bertaut's students (or his students' students) continue to develop this knowledge. The seeds sown by Néel, Bertaut and their colleagues have germinated and grown.


== Research == == Research ==
Lewy-Bertaut made an enormous contributions to magnetic and neutron crystallography, including the use of group theory in describing magnetic structures<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1107/S0567739468000306 |title=Representation analysis of magnetic structures |year=1968 |last1=Bertaut |first1=E. F. |journal=Acta Crystallographica Section A |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=217–231 |bibcode=1968AcCrA..24..217B }}</ref>. When the ] (IUCr) decided to finalize the volume on the symmetry of space groups in the International Tables of Crystallography, he was a member of the ad hoc committee and contributed in particular to the definition of magnetic groups<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1107/S056773947100069X |title=Ordering scheme for general positions in ''International Tables'' |year=1971 |last1=Bertaut |first1=E. F. |last2=Wondratschek |first2=H. |journal=Acta Crystallographica Section A |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=298–300 |bibcode=1971AcCrA..27..298B }}</ref>. He used the symmetry of crystals to propose all possible magnetic structures. This "Bertaut method" was very useful for complex structures.<ref name=magrev></reF><ref>{{Cite web |title=A walk through of the maths behind Bertaut’s method of representational analysis of magnetic structures – Wills Group |url=http://fermat.chem.ucl.ac.uk/spaces/willsgroup/magnetic-structures/a-walk-through-of-the-maths-behind-bertauts-method-of-representational-analysis-of-magnetic-structures/ |website=fermat.chem.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name=hahn></ref> Lewy-Bertaut also developed what is known as structure factor algebra<ref name=iucr></ref> and solved the structure of complex compounds such as the non-stoichiometric ].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1107/S0365110X53001502 |title=Contribution à l'étude des structures lacunaires: La pyrrhotine |year=1953 |last1=Bertaut |first1=E. F. |journal=Acta Crystallographica |volume=6 |issue=6 |pages=557–561 |bibcode=1953AcCry...6..557B }}</ref>
E. F. Bertaut was an eclectic, highly cultured man who had learned Latin, Greek, French, English, law, music and then chemistry and crystallography and, as Professor ] said, "Félix Bertaut is a mathematician who does crystallography". The author of several hundred publications, of which a hundred or so were by his sole name, often short notes in the ] or in ], and the head of two quite different laboratories, E.F. Bertaut was also an ardent apostle of the province and of diversity. He played a major role in turning a provincial town, Grenoble, into a European scientific centre.


== Scientific distinctions and appointments == == Honors and distinctions ==
E.F. Bertaut's scientific reputation is international. He was a member of the IUCr executive committee between 1975 and 1981. He was co-founder of its "Neutron Diffraction" commission and co-founder and chairman of its "International Tables" and "Charge, Spin and Momentum Density" commissions. He was the IUCr representative on the Solid State Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) between 1966 and 1972 and was secretary and then chairman of the Solid State Physics Section. He was editor or co-editor of numerous scientific journals. From 1958 to 1982, he was scientific advisor to various institutes: ] (CEA), CNRS, ILL, and Max Planck Institut - Stuttgart). Knight of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Merit, he has received several awards and has been appointed Professor honoris causa of various universities: Geneva, Frankfurt, Uppsala, Helsinki and Xanthi. He was elected a full member of the ] in 1979. Lewy-Bertaut was a member of the IUCr executive committee between 1975 and 1981. He was co-founder of its "Neutron Diffraction" commission and co-founder and chairman of its "International Tables" and "Charge, Spin and Momentum Density" commissions. He was the IUCr representative on the Solid State Commission of the ] (IUPAP) between 1966 and 1972 and was secretary and then chairman of the Solid State Physics Section. He was editor or co-editor of numerous scientific journals. From 1958 to 1982, he was scientific advisor to various institutes, including the ] (CEA), CNRS, ILL, and the ] in Stuttgart.<ref name=iucr></ref><ref name=who></ref>


Lewy-Bertaut received the ] in 1959.<ref name=physcript></ref> He received the ] and Commander of the National Order of Merit. In 1979, Lewy-Bertaut was elected a full member of the ]. In 1986, Lewy-Bertaut received the ] from the ].<ref name=hom></ref><ref name=who></ref>
== More information ==


=== Bibliography === == Further reading ==
⚫ *Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut, Notice nécrologique de l’Académie des Sciences, J. Villain (2004).
, ''In memoriam published on the IUCr website.''
*{{Cite web |date=2018-02-15 |title=Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut - Les Membres de l'Académie des sciences |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215030116/https://www.academie-sciences.fr/archivage_site/academie/membre/LewyBertaud_Erwin.htm |website=web.archive.org}}

⚫ *, Séance publique Académie des Sciences du 8 novembre 2005, J-Cl. Pecker (2005)
⚫ Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut, ''Notice nécrologique de l’Académie des Sciences'', J. Villain (2004).
⚫ * May 2006, CNRS-Polygone, Grenoble.

- Les Membres de l'Académie des sciences (academie-sciences.fr)

⚫ , ''Séance publique Académie des Sciences du 8 novembre 2005'', J-Cl. Pecker (2005)

Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003), F. De Bergevin, J-L. Hodeau, J. Schweizer (2004) ].

Félix Bertaut, space groups and the International Tables for Crystallography, Theo Hahn (2004) ].

The life and achievements of Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003), G. Férey and J-L. Hodeau (2015) .

⚫ mai 2006, CNRS-Polygone, Grenoble.


== References == == References ==
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Latest revision as of 09:31, 28 December 2024

French crystallographer and neutron scientist (1913-2003)
Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut
BornErwin Lewy
(1913-02-09)February 9, 1913
Leobschütz, Germany
DiedNovember 6, 2003(2003-11-06) (aged 90)
Grenoble, France
NationalityFrench
EducationUniversity of Freiburg
University of Breslau
University of Bordeaux
University of Grenoble
Known formagnetic crystallography
granulometry
neutron scattering
AwardsChevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Commandeur de l’Ordre national du mérite
Scientific career
InstitutionsCNRS
Institut Laue–Langevin
ThesisEtude aux rayons X des dimensions des domaines de Bragg dans les poudres polycristallines. Application à l'étude de la texture et structure de poudres de fer pyrophoriques et de leurs propriétés magnétiques (1953)
Doctoral advisorLouis Néel

Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut (9 February 1913 – 6 November 2003), also known separately as Erwin Lewy, Félix Bertaut, and E. F. Bertaut, or Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut, was a German-born French materials scientist who led a former life as a law school student in Nazi Germany. He was renowned internationally for his work in magnetic crystallography, X-ray diffraction, and neutron scattering. He was a research director at CNRS, a member of the French Academy of Sciences and played an important role in the creation of Institut Laue–Langevin, a leading neutron research facility in the world.

Biography

Lewy-Bertaut was born with the name Erwin Lewy to Jewish parents in Leobschütz of Silesia (then in Germany). The year 1930 marked a significant shift as his mother passed away, prompting their entire family's relocation to Gleiwitz amidst an era of economic turmoil and the ascent of Nazism. Following this, in 1931, Lewy embarked on his legal studies first at the University of Freiburg and subsequently in University of Breslau (now Wrocław). As Hitler's ascendancy to power unfurled in Germany, instituting a "numerus clausus" that effectively precluded Jewish individuals from university access, Lewy-Bertaut left for Bordeaux, France. There, the Rothschild Foundation awarded him a scholarship, facilitating his enrollment at the University of Bordeaux, where Lewy-Bertaut studied chemical engineering, physics, and mathematics. After graduation, Lewy-Bertaut undertook roles as a mathematics and German tutor and acquired French citizenship in 1936. In 1938, Lewy-Bertaut worked as an engineer at Institut du pin and joined the French army as a military volunteer near Bordeaux. At the onset of the conflict in 1940, Colonel Faure entrusted him with the military records of a missing soldier, Félix Bertaut, and he adopted this name permanently.

Lewy-Bertaut worked as a chemical engineer between 1941 and 1943 to enhance the durability of bicycle brakes crafted from agglomerated cork. To elude police inspections and evade mandatory labor service, he went to Paris, where he collaborated with Marcel Mathieu at the Laboratoire Central des Poudres. Subsequently, he partnered with Emmanuel Grison, who tutored him in the utilization of the International Tables for Crystallography. Regrettably, a bicycle registration check by the police led to his summons to the Paris Prefecture. Lewy-Bertaut moved to Grenoble in the Italian-occupied zone to meet Louis Néel, who was temporarily withdrawn from the University of Strasbourg and has founded the Laboratoire d'Electrostatique et de Physique du Métal (LEPM, now Institut Néel) in 1946, which was the first CNRS laboratory outside the Paris region. Lewy-Bertaut also took over Erwin Lewy's qualifications in 1946 and obtained a research grant from the CNRS under his wartime identity, "Félix Bertaut". Lewy-Bertaut eventually finished his thesis under Louis Néel in 1953 and André Guinier was also an examiner. His thesis involves X-ray diffraction studies of powder granulometry, which later became known as the Bertaut-Warren-Averbach method. Immediately after his thesis, Lewy-Bertaut started establishing his group at the LEPM that formed the basis of the X-ray department to carry out research in cristallography, along with Francis Forrat and Professor René Pauthenet, distinguished themselves with their work on garnet ferrites, from which the theory of antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism was built up.

In 1949, Lewy-Bertaut read a one-page publication by Clifford G. Shull and J. Samuel Smart, which recovered the magnetic structure of MnO from neutron diffraction and validated Louis Néel's work on antiferromagnetism. In 1953, Lewy-Bertaut secured a Fulbright grant to visit Raymond Pepinski's laboratory at State College, Pennsylvania and accessed the neutron diffraction facilities at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he acquainted himself with neutron experiments under the guidance of Lester Corliss and Julius Hastings. Upon returning to Grenoble, Lewy-Bertaut was placed in charge of the development of the military facility Polygone d'Artillerie (now Polygone Scientifique) into a neutron research center, which later became the Institut Laue-Langevin, an international research facility collaboratively funded by the French and German governmental agencies. Lewy-Bertaut was CNRS research director in 1956 and the scientific director of CNRS in 1961.

Research

Lewy-Bertaut made an enormous contributions to magnetic and neutron crystallography, including the use of group theory in describing magnetic structures. When the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) decided to finalize the volume on the symmetry of space groups in the International Tables of Crystallography, he was a member of the ad hoc committee and contributed in particular to the definition of magnetic groups. He used the symmetry of crystals to propose all possible magnetic structures. This "Bertaut method" was very useful for complex structures. Lewy-Bertaut also developed what is known as structure factor algebra and solved the structure of complex compounds such as the non-stoichiometric pyrrhotite.

Honors and distinctions

Lewy-Bertaut was a member of the IUCr executive committee between 1975 and 1981. He was co-founder of its "Neutron Diffraction" commission and co-founder and chairman of its "International Tables" and "Charge, Spin and Momentum Density" commissions. He was the IUCr representative on the Solid State Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) between 1966 and 1972 and was secretary and then chairman of the Solid State Physics Section. He was editor or co-editor of numerous scientific journals. From 1958 to 1982, he was scientific advisor to various institutes, including the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), CNRS, ILL, and the Max Planck Institute for Metal Research in Stuttgart.

Lewy-Bertaut received the CNRS Silver Medal in 1959. He received the Knight of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Merit. In 1979, Lewy-Bertaut was elected a full member of the Académie des Sciences. In 1986, Lewy-Bertaut received the Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Perez-Mato, J.M.; Gallego, S.V.; Tasci, E.S.; Elcoro, L.; de la Flor, G.; Aroyo, M.I. (2015-07-01). "Symmetry-Based Computational Tools for Magnetic Crystallography". Annual Review of Materials Research. 45 (1): 217–248. doi:10.1146/annurev-matsci-070214-021008. ISSN 1531-7331.
  2. ^ De Bergevin, F.; Hodeau, J. L.; Schweizer, J. (2004-04-01). "Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003)". Journal of Applied Crystallography. 37 (2): 349–350. doi:10.1107/S0021889804004376. ISSN 0021-8898.
  3. ^ Férey, Gérard; Hodeau, Jean-Louis (2015-02-01). "The life and achievements of Erwin-Félix Lewy-Bertaut (1913–2003)". Physica Scripta. 90 (2): 028001. doi:10.1088/0031-8949/90/2/028001. ISSN 0031-8949.
  4. "CTHS - LEWY Erwin dit Félix BERTAUT". cths.fr.
  5. ^ Sayetat, Françoise (2006). "Hommage à E.-F. Bertaut". Bulletin de la Société Française de Physique (155): 24–25. doi:10.1051/refdp/200615504. ISSN 0037-9360.
  6. "Erwin Félix Lewy-Bertaut, cristallographe". Le Monde (in French). 2003-11-13.
  7. ^ "Biographie de Erwin Lewy-bertaut pseudo.*: BERTAUT, Chercheur scientifique, Membre de l´Institut - Who's Who". www.whoswho.fr (in French).
  8. Marbach, Christian (2016-06-01). "Pour les sciences". Bulletin de la Sabix (59): 25–36. doi:10.4000/sabix.1660. ISSN 2114-2130.
  9. ^ Hahn, Theo (2004-04-01). "Félix Bertaut, space groups and the International Tables for Crystallography". Journal of Applied Crystallography. 37 (2): 350–351. doi:10.1107/S0021889804004443. ISSN 0021-8898.
  10. Leoni, M. (2019). "The Warren–Averbach method and its variations". urn:isbn:978-1-118-41628-0. H: 288–303. doi:10.1107/97809553602060000951.
  11. Shull, C. G.; Smart, J. S. (1949). "Detection of Antiferromagnetism by Neutron Diffraction". Physical Review. 76 (8): 1256–1257. Bibcode:1949PhRv...76.1256S. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.76.1256.2.
  12. Bertaut, E. F. (1968). "Representation analysis of magnetic structures". Acta Crystallographica Section A. 24 (1): 217–231. Bibcode:1968AcCrA..24..217B. doi:10.1107/S0567739468000306.
  13. Bertaut, E. F.; Wondratschek, H. (1971). "Ordering scheme for general positions in International Tables". Acta Crystallographica Section A. 27 (3): 298–300. Bibcode:1971AcCrA..27..298B. doi:10.1107/S056773947100069X.
  14. "A walk through of the maths behind Bertaut's method of representational analysis of magnetic structures – Wills Group". fermat.chem.ucl.ac.uk.
  15. Bertaut, E. F. (1953). "Contribution à l'étude des structures lacunaires: La pyrrhotine". Acta Crystallographica. 6 (6): 557–561. Bibcode:1953AcCry...6..557B. doi:10.1107/S0365110X53001502.
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