César-Mansuète Despretz (4 May 1791,

Lessines Lessines (; nl, Lessen, ; pcd, Lissene, wa, Lissene) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of the 2014 census, The municipality's total population was 18,637. The total area is 72.29 km² (27 ...

– 15 March 1863, Paris) was a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He became a French citizen in 1838. A street got its name after him in Lessines (rue César Despretz).

Biography

In 1818, Despretz started working as répétiteur in chemistry at Polytechnique, in Paris, under

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (, , ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws ...

(1778-1850) who mentored his early research. In 1824, he was appointed to teach at the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV, first as adjunct professor, then as holder of the chair of physics. In 1831, César Despretz was briefly appointed to the chair of physics at Polytechnique to replace Claude Pouillet (1791-1868) who had resigned for health reasons after only a few months in office. Despretz was succeeded by Gabriel Lamé (1795-1870) who would hold the position from 1832 to 1844. In 1837, he was appointed adjunct professor of physics at the Faculté des sciences de Paris. In 1841, Despretz succeeded

Félix Savart Félix Savart (; ; 30 June 1791, Mézières – 16 March 1841, Paris) was a French physicist and mathematician who is primarily known for the Biot–Savart law of electromagnetism, which he discovered together with his colleague Jean-Bapti ...

(1791-1841) in the physics section of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

. He would serve as president in 1858. In 1847, he became full professor of physics at the Faculté des sciences de Paris. César Despretz became a foreign member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1862, a few months before his death at the age of 71.

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia article
Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society 1863 deaths 1791 births Belgian Roman Catholics {{chemist-stub