Born January 28, 1884,
Basel, Switzerland
Died March 24, 1962,
Lausanne, Switzerland

Jacques Piccard

Born July 28, 1922,
Brussels, Belgium

Auguste Piccard was born into a prominent academic family in the Swiss city of Basel. He had a twin brother, Jean, who later became an important chemist. The brothers enrolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich; Auguste studied physics and Jean chemistry. During this time Auguste, who had become interested in using balloons in experiments, participated in several research studies involving balloons. In 1919 Auguste married the daughter of a professor of history at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1922 he was appointed to the chair of applied physics at the University of Brussels in Belgium, where his son Jacques was born the same year.

Jacques Piccard graduated from the Êcole Nouvelle de Suisse Romande in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1943, then continued his studies in economics at the University...