He recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783), and opposed the phlogiston theory. She died when Antoine was five years old, leaving him a large amount of money. Antoine Lavoisier was born in Paris, France on August 26, 1743. Lavoisier helped construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. However, he initially was going to follow in his father's footsteps, earning a law degree. After completing the basic education, he entered the Law School and received a Law degree in 1763 but never practiced it due to a lack of interest. Antoine Lavoisier, in full Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, (born August 26, 1743, Paris, France—died May 8, 1794, Paris), prominent French chemist and leading figure in the 18th-century chemical revolution who developed an experimentally based theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen and coauthored the modern system for naming chemical substances. His father was a lawyer and his mother died when he was only five years old. Antoine discovered his love for science while attending college. His father was a lawyer in the parliament of Paris at that time. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier was born into a privileged family on August 26, 1743 in France’s capital city, Paris. Antoine Lavoisier disproved the existence of phlogiston and helped to form the basis of modern chemistry using Joseph Priestley’s discovery of oxygen. Antoine Lavoisier, who lived from 1743 to 1794, was a French scientist and one of the founders of modern chemistry. . His mother was Émilie Punctis, whose family wealth had come from a butchery business. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, a meticulous experimenter, revolutionized chemistry. Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was born in the year 1743 in Paris. He grew up in an aristocratic and wealthy family. Scientist and Tax Collector The son of a wealthy Parisian lawyer, For basic education, he was sent to the University of Paris in 1754. His father was Jean-Antoine Lavoisier, a lawyer in the Paris Parliament. He established the law of conservation of mass, determined that combustion and respiration are caused by chemical reactions with what he named “oxygen,” and helped systematize chemical nomenclature, among many other accomplishments. A New Chemistry Emerges In 1766, Englishman Henry Cavendish isolated a gas that he called "inflammable air" because it burned readily. Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ... Lavoisier is most noted for his discovery of the role oxygen plays in combustion.