Pierre Rousseau

Pierre Rousseau
Born	Pierre Jean-Baptiste Rousseau 11 February 1905 Montbazon, France
Died	1983 Limeil-Brévannes, France
Occupation	Essayist, Epistemologist, Astronomer, Journalist

Pierre Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (11 February 1905 - 1983) was a French essayist, epistemologist, astronomer and journalist who authored numerous popular science essays and articles. He helped promote hard science to the general public and advocated the development of fundamental scientific research in a "post-war disenchantment".

The son of clerk assistant Jean-Baptiste Rousseau and Marie Renée Lefort, he was the oldest of three brothers. One of his brothers, René, died at the Battle of France and the other, Jean, volunteered as an airborne radio-operator in the Free French Forces before pursuing a career at Air France.

Rousseau was drawn to science as a child through reading a popular astronomy collection published by Théophile Moreux. A gifted student in mathematics who received departmental and national bursaries in 1918 and 1920, Rousseau built his first telescope at the age of 13 and published his first scientific paper at 17.

With the help of Jean Becquerel, he was appointed Assistant Boarding Master at the Montargis middle school in 1923. Despite his repeated attempts to be transferred to a city with a university in order to prepare his degree, Rousseau lived for several years between Fontainebleau, Blois and Vendôme.

After obtaining his first degree in General Mathematics in 1929, he was transferred to Paris at the Lycée Charlemagne and briefly to the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly before becoming assistant teacher at the Lycée Buffon. Rousseau then fulfilled his military obligation in 1931.

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