Ortous de Mairan, Jean-Jacques d', 1678-1771 (French geophysicist, astronomer, and chronobiologist )
Dates
- Existence: 1678 - 1771
Biography
Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan was born in Béziers on 26 November 1678. He attended college in Toulouse from 1694 to 1697, then went to Paris to study mathematics and physics in 1698. He returned to Béziers in 1702 and began his lifelong study of astronomy and plant rhythms. His observations and experiments are chiefly important for pioneering the study of biological circadian rhythms. He was inducted into the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1748 and co-founded the Académie de Béziers in 1723. He eventually returned to Paris as Secretary of the Académie Royale des Sciences from 1740 to 1743 and was given official lodging at the Louvre. He intermittently served as the Académie’s Assistant Director and later Director between 1721 and 1760. He also served as Editor of the important scientific review Journals des Sçavans. Mairan was elected a member of the Russian Academy (1718), a fellow of the Royal Society (1735), and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1769). He was a member of the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Uppsala, and of the Institute of Bologne. He died in Paris on 20 February 1771.