, also spelled Barnard Courtois
, (12 February 1777–27 September 1838) was a French chemist
born in Dijon, France
Courtois grew up in the prestigious surroundings of his father's workplace at the Dijon Academy. The Academy, where the family lived, was a small hotel that had been converted for scientific studies. Courtois' father, Jean-Baptiste, worked for the chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau
as well as for the Academy as a pharmacist
and was called by his family pharmacien de l'Academie.
When Courtois was twelve the family moved to the Saint-Medard Nitrary, an experimental nitrate
plant which Jean-Baptiste bought from Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau and his partner.
Courtois and his brother Pierre learned the trade of making potassium nitrate
for gunpowder for the French Revolution
. Courtois, however, branched off from this venture to learn chemistry. Courtois lived at Saint-Medard Nitrary until he was about eighteen, when he left his family home to begin his trade apprenticeship in chemistry in Auxerre
. Here for three years he was a student of M. Frémy, the future grandfather of Edmond Frémy
. He then obtained a position with Antoine-François de Fourcroy
at the École Polytechnique
in Paris. In 1799 Courtois served as a pharmacist in military hospitals. In 1801 he returned to the École Polytechnique
to work in the laboratory of Louis Jacques......