Georges Nomarski
Georges Nomarski was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and optics theoretician. Creator of differential interference contrast microscopy, the method is widely used to study live biological specimens and unstained tissues and in many languages bears his name.Biography
Born in Nowy Targ, Nomarski was educated in Warsaw at the Warsaw University of Technology and served in the Polish Resistance during World War II. Captured by German forces, he was a prisoner of war until March 1945. After the war when the Soviets supported communists installed their regime over Poland, Nomarski had to escape to Belgium as a political refugee. He studied there briefly before heand next move France for his permanent residence in 1947. He finished his education in France and received his diploma from l'Ecole Supérieure d'Optique Paris. In 1950, Nomarski established the Laboratoire de Microscopie Optique de L'Institut d'Optique and became a professor of microscopy and head of the department at his alma mater. He simultaneously conducted research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where the physicist rose to the Directorship of Research by 1965.Honors
