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Article: Piccard, Auguste
- Article from:
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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PICCARD, AUGUSTE
(
b
. Basel, Switzerland, 28 January 1884;
d
. Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 March 1962)
physics.
With his twin brother, Jean F
é
lix (
d.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 23 January 1960), Auguste Piccard achieved fame and distinction as a scientist and explorer of the stratosphere and the ocean depths. Sons of Jules and Helene Haltenhoff Piccard, the Piccards were members of a prominent Vaudois family: their grandfather was
commissaire g
é
n
é
ral
of the canton; their father, head of the chemistry department at the University of Basel; and their uncle Paul, designer of the first Niagara Falls-type turbines, which he manufactured and sold through the Piccard-Pictet Company he ...