Prince Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie, later 7th duke de Broglie (pronounced "debroy" in French), was born at Dieppe, France, on August 15, 1892. He came from a distinguished family of the French nobility, which included diplomats and soldiers. His brother Maurice, 6th duke de Broglie, was a noted physicist.

Louis was educated at the Sorbonne, where he became Professor in 1932.

The work he carried out for his doctoral thesis, published in 1924, dealt with aspects of the quantum theory and led him to prove mathematically that all moving particles behaved as waves, thus reconciling the dual nature of light. He obtained the Nobel prize for Physics in 1929. In 1927, two independent groups of investigators proved de Broglie' theory experimentally.

de Broglie received many honours for his work, notably, he became a Member of the French Academy in 1944 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1953. He died at Louveciennes on March 19, 1987.