Jean Baptiste Boussingault
| Jean-Baptiste Boussingault | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1 February 1801 Paris, France |
| Died | 11 May 1887 (aged 85) Paris, France |
| Nationality | France |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers |
| Notable awards | Copley Medal (1878) |
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (1 February 1801 – 11 May 1887) was a French chemist who made significant contributions to agricultural science, petroleum science and metallurgy.
Jean-Baptiste Boussingault - an agricultural scientist and chemist of importance - was born in Paris. After studying at the school of mines at Saint-Etienne he went to Alsace to work in the asphalt mines - a two-year interlude that was to shape his contributions to science. During the insurrection of the Spanish colonies, in 1822 with the Peruvian geologist Mariano Rivero, he went to Venezuela as a mining engineer on behalf of an English company contracted by the General Simón Bolivar. In Urao lagoon near Lagunillas, Merida State, Venezuela discovered the Mineral Gaylussite. At Santa Fe de Bogota he was attached to the staff of General Bolivar as colonel and traveled widely in the northern parts of the continent, climbing to a new highest altitude by a Western explorer on Chimborazo in the process. Contrary to earlier Encyclopædia Britannica entries, his greatest contributions were in biological and related applied fields.
Returning to France he married Adele Le Bel whose family had the concession to the asphalt mines where he had previously worked and it was in this period that he made his greatest discoveries. Later he became professor of chemistry at Lyon, and in 1839 was appointed to the chair of agricultural and analytical chemistry at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris. In 1848 he was elected to the National Assembly representing his adopted Alsace, where he sat as a Moderate republican. Three years later he was dismissed from his professorship on account of his political opinions, but so much resentment at this action was shown by scientific men in general, and especially by his colleagues, who threatened to resign in a body, that he was reinstated. He died in Paris.
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