Portrait of Gabriel Lippmann

Birthday profile

Gabriel Lippmann

Gabriel Lippmann, Luxembourger-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1921)

Born
August 16, 1845
Died
July 13, 1921
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1845

About Gabriel Lippmann

Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann ( LIP-muhn; French: [ɡabʁijɛl lipman]; 16 August 1845 – 12 July 1921) was a French applied physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 for his invention of the Lippmann plate, a method of photographically reproducing colours based on the interference phenomenon. == Biography == Gabriel Lippmann was born on 16 August 1845 to Jewish parents in Hollerich, Luxembourg, where his father managed a glove-making business. In 1848, the family moved to Paris, where Lippmann was initially tutored by his mother, before entering the Lycée Napoléon (now the Lycée Henri-IV) in 1858. He was said to have been a rather inattentive but thoughtful pupil with a special interest in mathematics. In 1868, he was admitted to the École normale supérieure, where he failed the agrégation examination, which would have enabled him to enter the teaching profession, preferring instead to study physics. In 1873, the French government sent Lippmann on a scientific mission to Germany to study methods of teaching science. He worked with Wilhelm Kühne and Gustav Kirchhoff at the University of Heidelberg, receiving a doctorate with summa cum laude distinction in 1874. The following year, he made a brief visit to Hermann von Helmholtz at the University of Berlin, before returning to Paris. On 24 July 1875, he submitted his doctoral thesis on electrocapillarity to the University of Paris. In 1878, Lippmann joined the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Gabriel Lippmann was born

Gabriel Lippmann was born in 1845. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineTexas and Florida become US states
  • Technology milestoneRubber band patented
  • World population~1.25B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames K. Polk
  • U.S. population19.6M

1845 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Gabriel Lippmann's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18452026
Population19.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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