Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois

Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois (20 January 1820 – 14 November 1886) was a French geologist and mineralogist who was the first to arrange the chemical elements in order of atomic weights, doing so in 1862. De Chancourtois only published his paper, but did not publish his actual graph with the irregular arrangement. Although his publication was significant, it was ignored by chemists as it was written in terms of geology. It was Dmitri Mendeleev's table published in 1869 that became most recognized. De Chancourtois was also a professor of mine surveying, and later geology at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. He also was the Inspector of Mines in Paris, and was widely responsible for implementing many mine safety regulations and laws during the time. De Chancourtois was born in 1820 in Paris. At age eighteen, he entered the renowned École Polytechnique, one of the best known French grandes écoles of engineering and management. While he was there, de Chancourtois was a pupil of three famous French scientists, Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont, Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play, and Ours-Pierre-Armand Petit-Dufrénoy. After completing his studies at École Polytechnique, de Chancourtois went on a biological expedition into Philippines, Luzon and Visayas. In 1848, de Chancourtois went back to Paris and joined the teaching faculty as professor of mine surveying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. He worked with le Play to organize a collection of minerals for the French government. In 1852, De Chancourtois was named the professor of geology at École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. In 1867, de Chancourtois was awarded the Légion d'honneur by Napoleon III of France. De Chancourtois led several overseas expeditions during the course of his life and served as the Inspector of Mines in Paris from 1875 until his death. As a mine inspector, he introduced safety laws to prevent methane gas explosions, which were frequent occurrences at the time. He died in 1886 in Paris.