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| Lavoisier |
Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier is considered the father of modern Chemistry, having introduced the quantitative method into this science. In 1768, aged 25, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. The astronomer Joseph Jérôme Lalande, who defended his candidacy, explained it this way:
A young man with knowledge, ingenuity, activity, whom fortune
exempts from practicing another profession, would naturally be of great use to
the sciences.
Indeed, his mother’s family inheritance allowed him to buy a position in a financial company called Ferme générale, whose members were responsible of collecting taxes on behalf of the king, a position he held until 1791 and which eventually led him to the grave. Here he met his future wife, Marie-Anne Paulze, whom he married in 1771 when she was 13, who became his best scientific collaborator.
