François Sulpice Beudant (5 September 1787 – 10 December 1850), was a French mineralogist and geologist. The mineral beudantite was named after him.

Life

He was born in Paris. He was educated at the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Normale, and in 1811 was appointed professor of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

at the lycée of

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

. Thence he was called, in 1813, to the lycée of

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

to fill the post of professor of physics, where he carried out the first measurements of the speed of sound in seawater. In the following year the royal mineralogical cabinet was committed to his charge to be conveyed into England, and from that time his attention was directed principally towards geology and cognate sciences. In 1817 he published a paper on the phenomena of

crystallization Crystallization is the process by which solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal. Some ways by which crystals form are precipitating from a solution, freezing, or more rarely deposi ...

, treating especially of the variety of forms assumed by the same mineral substance. In 1818 he undertook, at the expense of the French government, a geological journey through Hungary, and the results of his researches, ''Voyage minéralogique et géologique en Hongrie'', 3 vols

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, with atlas, published in 1822, established for him a European reputation. In 1820, he was appointed to the professorship of mineralogy in the Paris faculty of sciences, and afterwards became inspector-general of the university. He subsequently published treatises on physics and on mineralogy and geology. Perhaps his most notable publication is the second edition of ''Traite Elementaire de Mineralogie'' (Paris, 1830–1832), the second volume of which deals with descriptive mineralogy and in which Beudant coined the names of many minerals, such as anglesite,

bismuthite Bismutite or bismuthite is a bismuth carbonate mineral with formula Bi2(CO3)O2 (bismuth subcarbonate). Bismutite occurs as an oxidation product of other bismuth minerals such as bismuthinite and native bismuth in hydrothermal veins and pegmatites. ...

and cerussite. The mineral beudantite was named for him.Mindat.org
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Life

Works

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Further reading