Pierre Joliot, a French biologist and grandson of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, has died. He passed away on 10 October at the age of 94, and the French Academy of Sciences announced the news on Wednesday, 14 October.
The news of the scientist’s death was published on X, citing a statement from the French Academy of Sciences:
According to Polsat News, the funeral is scheduled for 19 October at the cemetery in Sceaux, near Paris. The death is also confirmed by an entry in the IdRef bibliographic catalogue, which gives the date as 10 October 2026. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Who was Pierre Joliot
He was born on 12 March 1932. He was a biologist and biophysicist, specialising in photosynthesis. According to the IdRef catalogue, he had been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 1982, and from 1981 to 2002 he was a professor at the Collège de France, where he headed the chair of cellular bioenergetics. He was also associated with the Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology in Paris, which, like the Academy, paid tribute to the scientist, according to Polsat News.
A family of Nobel laureates
He was the son of Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making him the grandson of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, the Polish scientist who received the award twice. His sister is nuclear physicist Hélène Langevin-Joliot. According to Polsat News, in one interview he said that coming from a “Nobel family” brought prestige but also great pressure, and that the name was sometimes a burden for him.
Tributes
In its statement, the Academy of Sciences described him as one of the most distinguished contemporary biologists. As of publication, no details had been given about the family of the deceased or about any commemorations in Poland.
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