A French chemist and physicist noted for his two laws on gases and for his work on alcohol-water mixtures. He was professor of physics at the Sorbonne and later took a chair of chemistry at the Jardin des Plantes. Together with Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774–1862), he made the first-ever hot-air balloon ascent for scientific purposes in 1804, reaching an altitude of over 6 km. He is also credited with recognizing iodine as a new element and suggested the name iodo, with the codiscovery of boron, and the terms ‘pipette’ and ‘burette’.