Dupuit, Arsene-Jules-Emile Juvenal (1804–1866)

Abstract

French engineer and economic theorist, born at Fossano, Piedmont, Italy on 18 May 1804, when this region was part of the French empire; died 5 September 1866 in Paris. After his parents returned to Paris in 1814, Dupuit continued his education in the secondary schools at Versailles, at Louis-le-Grand and at Saint-Louis, where he finished brilliantly by winning a physics prize in a large group of competitors. Accepted to the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in 1824, Dupuit soon distinguished himself as an engineer and, in 1827, was put in charge of an engineering district in the department of Sarthe, where he concentrated on roadway and navigation work. Dupuit’s numerous and trenchant engineering studies on such topics as friction and highway deterioration, floods and hydraulics, and municipal water systems made him one of the most creative civil engineers of his day. Decorated for such contributions by the Legion of Honour in 1843, Dupuit ultimately became director-chief engineer in Paris in 1850 and Inspector-General of the Corps of Civil Engineers in 1855.