Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794)
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier’s most important contribution to chemistry was the understanding of combustion and respiration as caused by chemical reactions with oxygen and hydrogen, which he named.
Lavoisier’s wife, Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze assisted him in the laboratory. She created many sketches and carved engravings of the laboratory instruments used by Lavoisier and his colleagues for their scientific works.
At the young age of 25, Lavoisier was elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1768, France’s most elite scientific society. Despite his reputation and his service to science and France, he came under attack as a former Farmer-General of taxes and was guillotined in 1794.
