1867-1945

French Physicist

Fabry's career was devoted to the design of precise optical devices based on the principles of interference of light. The Fabry-Pérot interferometer would become one of the mainstays of modern optical instrumentation. Fabry was also involved in one of the first measurements of the Doppler shifts caused by the random thermal motions of atoms and in establishing the existence of the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere.

Fabry attended the Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Paris, receiving his doctoral degree in 1889. After holding some minor teaching posts, he joined the faculty at the University of Marseilles in 1894, moving to the Sorbonne in 1920. Fabry's doctoral thesis dealt with the interference of light waves and in 1896 he devised, with Alfred Pérot, a chamber, using partially reflecting mirrors, that allowed a light beam to interfere with itself numerous times. As a result of...