Louis Albert Necker de Saussure

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

MWS FGS (10 April 1786 – 20 November 1861) was a Swiss crystallographer and geographer. Necker cube and impossible cube

He is best remembered for devising the

optical illusion Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...

now known as the

Necker cube The Necker cube is an optical illusion that was first published as a Rhomboid in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker. It is a simple wire-frame, two dimensional drawing of a cube with no visual cues as to its orientation, so it c ...

Life

He was born in the

Republic of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva (french: link=no, République et canton de Genève; frp, Rèpublica et canton de Geneva; german: Republik und Kanton Genf; it, Repubblica e Cantone di Ginevra; rm, Republica e ...

, the son of botanist Professor Jacques Necker, nephew and namesake of statesman

Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Genevan banker and statesman who served as finance minister for Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent. Necker was a constitutional monarchi ...

, and

Albertine Necker de Saussure Albertine Adrienne Necker de Saussure (9 April 1766, in Geneva – 13 April 1841, in Mornex, on the Salève, near Geneva) was a Genevan and then Swiss writer and educationalist, and an early advocate of education for women. Life Albertine Necke ...

. He was educated in Geneva, then sent to

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

to study Sciences from 1806 to 1808. He returned to Scotland in 1841 and settled on the Isle of Skye, lodging with the Cameron family at Bosville Terrace in Portree. His scientific interests turned to astronomy and a study of the

aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...

. In 1843 and 1845, he was joined by his friend, James Forbes, a glaciologist. Together, they made the first accurate map of the

Cuillins The Cuillin ( gd, An Cuiltheann) is a range of mostly jagged rocky mountains on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also called the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin ('), which lie to the east of Glen Slig ...

. He spent his later life mountaineering and collecting ornithological specimens. He died in

Portree Portree (; gd, Port Rìgh, ) is the largest town on, and capital of, the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. Pages 154-155. It is the location for the only secondary school o ...

on 20 November 1861.Mitchell J R. On the trail of Necker, from Geneva to Portree. ''West Highland Free Press'', 12 July 2002, p. 15. He is buried next to the Cameron family in the Portree churchyard.

Works

*''Mémoire sur les oiseaux des environs de Genève'', Genève : Chez J.J. Paschoud, 1823. *''Voyage en Écosse et aux Iles Hébrides.'' Genève, Paris, J.J. Paschoud, 1821. *''Memoire sur la vallée de Valorsine'', Genève : J. Barbezat et comp., 1828. *''Mémoire sur le Mont Somma.'' Genève. : Barbezat et Delarue. 1828. *''Le règne minéral ramené aux méthodes de l'histoire naturelle'', Paris : Levrault, 1835. *''Études géologiques dans les Alpes'', Paris : Pitois : Langlois et Leclercq ; Strasbourg : Levrault, 1841.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Necker, Louis Albert 18th-century scientists from the Republic of Geneva 1786 births 1861 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom People from the Isle of Skye