Edouard Jacot, physicist, was the son of Fritz Jacot and his wife Mathilde, born Favre. He passed the matriculation examination of the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1905. Continuing his studies at the South African College, Cape Town, he was awarded the degree Bachelor of Arts (BA) with honours in physics by the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1908. In 1910 he won the 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship at the South African College and in 1913 succeeded W.H. Logeman* as lecturer in physics at the college. Towards the end of 1915, during World War I (1914-1918), he left on military service. As a lieutenant in the 42nd Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps he was shot down by machine gun fire while on a photographic patrol in 1917.
During his short career Jacot produced several scientific papers: "The effect of the electric discharge on water vapour" (with W.H. Logeman; Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 1910, Vol. 2, pp. 137-155); "The reflection of X-rays" (Nature, 1913); "On a relation between ionization by cathode rays and certain chemical effects" (The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 1913); "The radio activity of the atmosphere" (Report of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, 1914, pp. 271-); and "Measurement of the natural ionisation of the air" (Ibid, 1915, p. 266-).
Jacot was a member of the Royal Society of South Africa. He was not married.
