Paul Langevin ForMemRS was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots. Langevin was also president of the Human Rights League from 1944 to 1946 – he had just recently joined the French Communist Party. He is entombed at the Panthéon. Being a public opponent against fascism in the 1930s resulted in his arrest and consequently he was held under house arrest by the Vichy government for most of the war. Paul Langevin, previously a doctoral student of Pierre Curie and later a lover of Marie Curie, is also famous for his two US patents with Constantin Chilowski in 1916 and 1917 involving ultrasonic submarine detection.
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