Augustin-Jean Fresnel

✶May 10, 1788

†July 14, 1827

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About their life

Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better known for inventing the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of "stepped" lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving countless lives at sea. The simpler dioptric stepped lens, first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel, is used in screen magnifiers and in condenser lenses for overhead projectors.

French engineer and physicist (1788-1827)

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Biography from the article Augustin-Jean Fresnel on the English Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.