Leon Foucault
Physicist
French physicist who demonstrated the Earth's rotation and measured the speed of light. For his breakthrough discoveries he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, even though he was French.
He abandoned his pursuit to be a doctor because of his fear of blood.
He is one of the 72 names inscribed on the sides of the Eiffel Tower, under the first balcony.
His father was a publisher in Paris, France.
One of his early experiments disproved Isaac Newton's theory of light.