Auguste Bravais

Auguste Bravais
Auguste Bravais (c. 1850)
Born	23 August 1811 Annonay
Died	30 March 1863 Le Chesnay
Nationality	France
Fields	crystallography
Alma mater	École Polytechnique
Known for	Bravais lattices

Auguste Bravais (French pronunciation: [oɡyst bʁavɛ]; 23 August 1811, Annonay, Ardèche – 30 March 1863, Le Chesnay, France) was a French physicist, well known for his work in crystallography (the Bravais lattices, and the Bravais laws). Bravais also studied magnetism, the northern lights, meteorology, geobotany, phyllotaxis, astronomy, and hydrography.

He studied at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, then joined the École Polytechnique in 1829. Bravais became a naval officer at the end of his studies. He sailed on the Finistere in 1832, then the Loiret, and collaborated in hydrographic work along the Algerian Coast. He participated in the Recherche expedition, and was sent to Spitsbergen and Lapland to help the Lilloise.

Bravais taught a course in applied mathematics for astronomy in the faculty of sciences in Lyon starting in 1840. He succeeded Victor Le Chevalier in the Chair of Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique between 1845 and 1856, after which he was replaced by Hureau of Senarmont. He is best remembered for pointing out in 1845 that there are 14 unique Bravais lattices in three dimensional crystalline systems, adjusting the previously existent result (15 lattices) by Frankenheim, obtained three years before. Bravais published a memoire about crystallography in 1847. A co-founder of the Société météorologique de France, he joined the French Academy of Sciences in 1854. Bravais also worked on the theory of observational errors where he is especially known for his 1846 paper "Mathematical analysis on the probability of errors of a point".