Augustin-Jean Fresnel

Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist, born in 1788 and dying in 1827, 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 Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of stepped lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses. He was accepted into the École Polytechnique in late 1804, graduated in 1806, and then enrolled at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, entering the service of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées in 1809. He lived just long enough to receive recognition from his peers, including on his deathbed the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society.