Biot

Biot, Jean Baptiste, was born at Paris in 1774, and at first entered the artillery, but his fondness for science led to his being sent to the Ecole Polytechnique. He was presently appointed professor of mathematics at Beauvais, and became the friend of Laplace. In 1800 he was called to the chair of natural philosophy in the College of France. He assisted Gay-Lussac in his balloon experiments, and undertook with Arago the measurement of an arc of the meridian between the Pyrenees and Formentera. This he joined ten years later to the measurements effected in England and Scotland for the trigonometrical survey. In 1808 he devoted himself to the study of the phenomena of polarised light, making several important discoveries almost simultaneously with Seebeck and Brewster. He died in 1862.