Augustin Jean Fresnel was a French physicist born in 1788 in Broglie, France. He made important contributions to the development of the Fresnel lens and theories of light, winning awards from the French Academy of Sciences in 1823 and the Royal Society in 1825. He struggled in school as a child but later excelled at the École Polytechnique and École des Ponts et Chausses. Fresnel worked as a civil engineer before losing his job due to his support of the Bourbons after Napoleon returned to power in 1814. He died in 1827.

1. Augustin Jean Fresnel
Born: May 10, 1788
Je ne trouve rien de si pénible
que d'avoir à mener des
hommes.
(I find nothing so painful as having
to lead men.)
Died: July 14, 1827

2. Background
• Born in Broglie, France
• French Male
• White
• Father: Jacques Fresnel (architect)
• Mother: Augustine Mérimée
• Brother: Louis Fresnel
• Brother: Léonor Fresnel (civil engineer)
• Brother: Fulgence Fresnel

3. Education
His early progress in learning was slow, and when
eight years old he was still unable to read. At the
age of thirteen he entered the École Centrale in
Caen, and at sixteen and a half the École
Polytechnique, where he acquitted himself with
distinction. From there he went to the École des
Ponts et Chausses. He served as an engineer
successively in the departments of Vendée,
Drôme and Ille-et-Villaine; but his espousal of
the cause of the Bourbons in 1814 occasioned,
on Napoleon's reaccession to power, the loss of
his appointment

4. Invention And Awards
• Fresnel lens
• French Academy of
Sciences 1823
• Royal Society 1825
• Rumford Medal 1827

5. References
• http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline
/people/fresnel.html
• http://www.nndb.com/people/925/0001006
25/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-
Jean_Fresnel
• 94189534

6. References
• http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline
/people/fresnel.html
• http://www.nndb.com/people/925/0001006
25/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-
Jean_Fresnel
• 94189534