Auguste Piccard was a Swiss physicist and inventor born on January 28, 1884. He is best known for his pioneering work in high-altitude balloon flights and underwater exploration. Piccard designed the first manned balloon to reach the stratosphere, achieving an altitude of over 15,000 meters in 1931. In addition to his ballooning achievements, Piccard also developed the Bathyscaphe Trieste, a deep-sea submersible. In 1960, he and his colleague Jacques Piccard descended to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, reaching a depth of about 10,900 meters, making significant contributions to oceanography and exploration.