Dominique François Jean Arago (1786–1853)

French physicist, astronomer, and politician. Professor of descriptive geometry at the École Polytechnique, 1809–30. Director of the Paris Observatory, where he gave public lectures on astronomy. An editor of the Annales de chimie et physique, 1816–40. Permanent secretary of the Académie des Sciences, 1830. Foreign member, Royal Society, 1818.