Bigurdan, Guillaume

Born in Sistel, Tarn and Garonne department , was the eldest son in a peasant family with three children. Parents worked hard to educate Guillaume. He received a bachelor's degree in 1870 and a degree in physics and mathematics in 1874 and in 1876, respectively.

From 1877 he worked at the Toulouse Observatory as an assistant to Felix Tisserand , and from 1879 - at the Paris Observatory . He made a number of trips, in particular to Martinique to observe the passage of Venus in 1882 , and in 1883 - to St. Petersburg . In 1885, he married Sophie, the daughter of Admiral Amedey Mouche , director of the Paris Observatory. Guillaume and Sophie married nine children.

In 1886 Bigurdan defended his doctoral dissertation "On the equation in the measurements of binary stars." He was engaged in meridian observations of binary stars , asteroids , comets , and nebulae . Compiled catalog of positions 6380 nebulae. A number of his works are devoted to the study of the Egyptian and Babylonian calendars ^[1] . In 1903 he became a member of the Bureau of Longitudes and an academician of the French Academy of Sciences . The 5-volume work of Bigurdan on the description of nebulae, completed in 1911, brought him international fame. In 1919 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society ^[2] , and in 1883 and 1891 he was awarded the Laland Prize . Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor .

Bigurdan was appointed director of the International Bureau of Time in 1920, and in 1924 became president of the Academy of Sciences and the Institute of France . He retired in 1926.

He died on February 28, 1932 in Paris, buried in the cemetery of Montparnasse in a family crypt with his wife Sophie.