Studies

Fabry at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1910

Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on interference fringes, which established him as an authority in the field of optics and spectroscopy. In 1904, he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Marseille, where he spent 16 years.

Career

Portrait of Fabry in a 1938 copy of "Oeuvres Choisies Publiées à l'Occasion de son Jubilé Scientifique"

In optics, he discovered an explanation for the phenomenon of interference fringes. Together with his colleague Alfred Pérot he invented a new interferometer in 1899, now known as the Fabry–Pérot interferometer.^[5][6][7] He and Henri Buisson discovered the ozone layer in 1913.

In 1921, Fabry was appointed Professor of General Physics at the Sorbonne and the first director of the new Institute of Optics. In 1926 he also became professor at the École Polytechnique. He was the first general director of the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée and director of "grande école" École supérieure d'optique (SupOptique).

Fabry was the President of the Société astronomique de France from 1931–1933.^[8]

Table featured in "Oeuvres Choisies Publiées à l'Occasion de son Jubilé Scientifique"