Lecture highlighting Langevin’s role in the creation of ultrasonics is available on YouTube

The vital role of Paul Langevin as the creator of ultrasonics is the subject of Francis Duck’s February lecture, now available on YouTube. He says that, historically, Langevin is to medical ultrasound what Wilhelm Roentgen is to medical radiology, yet his place in history has been obscured by the passage of time. However, since the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2022, there has been a greater interest in Langevin’s life and science.

The first biography in English was published last year by Springer Nature: Paul Langevin: Physicist and Social Activist, by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Duck. In his lecture at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution titled ‘Paul Langevin physicist, humanist, internationalist’, Duck sets the creation of ultrasonics during WWI in the broader context of Langevin’s role in 20th century physics. He worked closely with Pierre and Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford and many others. He studied with J J Thompson at Cambridge, and was awarded honorary doctorates for his work on gas ionisation and on magnetism by the universities of Bristol and Leeds. His development of ultrasonic submarine detection inspired others to explore therapeutic and then diagnostic applications of ultrasound. In addition, Langevin publicly opposed the rise of fascism during the 1930s, leading to his imprisonment during WWII. Sir Henry Tizard saw him as a man “engaged throughout his life in the sheer pursuit of truth and of high ideals … that stretches far beyond the confines of his own country.” These truths and ideals have much to recommend them in today’s polarised world, Duck concludes.

Francis Duck is a retired medical physicist who has written and edited books and articles about the history of medical physics.

Picture: Paul Langevin in the laboratory standing by the sink where the first ultrasonic experiments were carried out. Credit: Paul-Eric Langevin.

Read this report on page 17 of the June 2026 issue of RAD Magazine.