Auguste Piccard, born on January 28, 1884 in Basel, Switzerland, was professor of physics at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich and then at the University of Brussels. Friend of Albert Einstein and Marie Curie he made possible modern aviation and space exploration by inventing the pressurised cabin and the stratospheric balloon.

He made the first ascents into the stratosphere in 1931 and 1932, reaching heights of 15,781 metres and 16,201 metres respectively, to study cosmic rays. He became the first man to witness the curvature of the Earth with his own eyes.

Applying the principle of his stratospheric balloon to the exploration of the deepest oceans, he built a revolutionary submarine, which he named the Bathyscaphe. Diving with his son, Jacques to 3150 metres in 1953, he became the man of both extremes: having flown the highest and dived the deepest.