Thomas Young
1773 – 1829 · aged 56
English polymath (1773-1829)
- Born
- 13 Jun 1773 · Milverton
- Died
- 10 May 1829 · London
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 13 Jun 1773BornBorn in Milverton
- 1794AwardFellow of the Royal Society
- 1803AwardRoyal Society Bakerian Medal
- 1808AwardCroonian Medal and Lecture
- 1822AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 10 May 1829DiedDied in London
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1773 – 1829).
- 1789 – 1799French Revolution
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
Biography
Thomas Young (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829) was a British polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony, and Egyptology. He was instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone.
Young's work influenced that of William Herschel, Hermann von Helmholtz, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Einstein. Young is credited with establishing Christiaan Huygens' wave theory of light, in contrast to the corpuscular theory of Isaac Newton. Young's work was subsequently supported by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
Text from the Wikipedia article Thomas Young (scientist), CC BY-SA 4.0
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