This document, written by Dominique Pestre, describes Něl's role in association with Louis Weil in making Grenoble a major center of solid state physics after World War II. Něl's graduate work had been in Strasbourg, where he studied ferromagnetics with Pierre Weiss. His movements during the war eventually brought him to Grenoble where, with the support of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Universit ̌de Grenoble, he established the Laboratorie d'Electrostatique et de Physique du Mťal (housed in the Fourier Institute) as a laboratory for metallurical physics. He worked in fields including permanent magnets, electrostatics (on which he worked with Nol︠ Felici), and ferrites and the theory of ferromagnetism. Also described are his administrative responsibilities which grew, especially in the late 1950s, and included direction of the Institut Polytechnique and the Centre d' tudes Nuclǎires as well as involvement in other national and international organizations and projects.