Studies on Gadolinium in Geneva since its Discovery by Marignac in 1880

Hundred years ago, Marignac characterized the new element gadolinium in its oxide. Many chemists and physicists at the University of Geneva have worked on the optical and magnetic properties of metallic gadolinium, its alloys, compounds and diluted Gd(III) substituted on various sites in crystals and glasses. Their results of investigating absorption, luminescence and photo-electron spectra, as well as paramagnetic resonance, are put in a context of contemporary studies elsewhere, and the theoretical interpretation and its implications are shortly discussed.