Charles Marie de La Condamine

Charles Marie de La Condamine (; 28 January 1701 – 4 February 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in territory which is now Ecuador, measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astro-geodetic observations. Furthermore he was a contributor to the ''Encyclopédie''.

He was a member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, the Royal Society of London, and the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg, the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in Bologna, and the academy of Cortona, as well as the Stanislas Academy in Nancy, France.

In 1760, he was elected to the prestigious ''Académie française'', where naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist Buffon welcomed him.

He also gained prominence as a passionate advocate for smallpox inoculation.

Through his contributions to botany, zoology, and the geography of Ecuador and the Amazon, he is regarded as a forerunner to German polymath Alexander von Humboldt. Provided by Wikipedia