Jean Senebier

Born May 6, 1742, in Geneva; died there July 22, 1809. Swiss naturalist. Senebier’s principal works dealt with plant physiology, particularly photosynthesis. He showed experimentally that the source of carbon in green plants is carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by the plants in sunlight. Senebier, who proposed the term “plant physiology” in 1791, wrote the first textbook on the discipline (Physiologique végétale, vols. 1–5, 1800). He laid the experimental foundations of photochemistry. He also wrote a number of works on meteorology, physics, and chemistry.