Life and Career
Born in Charleroi on July 17, 1894, Georges Lemaître was a Belgian astronomer, cosmologist, and professor at KU Leuven, where he spent most of his academic career. He passed away in Leuven on June 20, 1966, leaving behind one of the most important legacies in modern science.
The Father of the Big Bang Theory
In 1925, Lemaître was appointed lecturer at KU Leuven. Just two years later, in 1927, he published his groundbreaking paper in the Annals of the Société Scientifique de Bruxelles, titled:
A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius accounting for the radial velocity of extragalactic nebulae.
This work laid the foundation for what is now known as the Big Bang Theory, the prevailing model of the origin of the universe.
Professor and Mathematician
Lemaître earned his Doctor of Philosophy and went on to become a professor at KU Leuven. Later in life, he focused increasingly on numerical computation, excelling as a calculator, algebraist, and arithmetician.
Science and Faith
Lemaître was not only a scientist but also a man of faith. He once said:
“I was interested in truth from the point of view of salvation just as much as in truth from the point of view of scientific certainty. It appeared to me that there were two paths to truth, and I decided to follow both of them.”
This dual pursuit of scientific discovery and spiritual truth defined his extraordinary life.
(Source: https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/irmp/georges-lemaitre.html) , photo by Aslı Tezcan
