Georges Lemaître

17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966

Georges Lemaître (1894-1966) was a Belgian Catholic priest, physicist and astronomer who first proposed that the universe is expanding and, in 1931, advanced the 'primeval atom' hypothesis that became the Big Bang theory. He derived what is now known as the Hubble-Lemaître law two years before Edwin Hubble's observational confirmation.

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Life events

Born in Charleroi, Belgium
17 July 1894

Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was born in Charleroi to a devout Catholic family.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Served as an artillery officer in the Belgian army during World War I
1914 – 1918

Lemaître volunteered at the outbreak of the war and was decorated with the Belgian War Cross.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Ordained a Catholic priest
1923

After studies at the seminary in Mechelen, Lemaître was ordained a priest by Cardinal Mercier.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Studied astronomy at Cambridge under Arthur Eddington
1923 – 1924

Lemaître spent a year as a research student at the University of Cambridge, where Eddington introduced him to modern cosmology.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1927

Lemaître completed doctoral studies in the United States, working with Harlow Shapley on variable stars and with researchers at Harvard and MIT.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published the first paper proposing an expanding universe
1927

In the Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles, Lemaître derived an expanding-universe solution to general relativity and estimated what is now called the Hubble constant.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed professor at the Catholic University of Louvain
1927

Lemaître took up a professorship at Louvain, where he taught for the rest of his career.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Proposed the 'primeval atom' hypothesis, forerunner of the Big Bang theory
May 1931

In a letter to Nature, Lemaître suggested the universe began from the decay of a single primeval atom, an idea later developed into Big Bang cosmology.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
1960

Pope John XXIII appointed Lemaître president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and he was also elevated to the rank of monsignor.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Leuven, Belgium
20 June 1966

Lemaître died in Leuven at the age of 71, shortly after learning of the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation that supported his theory.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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