Best known outside the scientific community for the Nobel Prize in Physics he won in 1991 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was exceptional amongst scientists for the breadth and depth of his contributions in multiple fields of physics. He was also much ahead of his time in his desire to break down barriers between scientific disciplines and between fundamental and applied science. He was equally unusual in his willingness to explain the nature and purpose of his work to society at large and to young people in particular.Laurence Plévert s fascinating work retraces the influences and experiences that moulded this complex charismatic charming and eclectic genius. It follows him from his unconventional childhood on the fringes of the old French aristocracy and in war-divided France through his glittering school and early scientific career up to the revolutionary breakthroughs in fields as diverse as superconductivity liquid crystals polymers and soft matter culminating in the final consecration of the Nobel prize.Constructed from exclusive interviews with the physicist himself his family friends and colleagues this biography immerses us in the work and character of a truly remarkable figure a Renaissance man of the 20th century.