Jean Piaget was a thoughtful and wise psychologist born in 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He began his scientific career as a biologist and zoologist, though later began a study of cognitive, rather than biological psychology. He was a professor of psychology at Geneva University until the age 60. His best known contribution to the field was the stunning work he did concerning the cognitive abilities of children, which he published in La Naissance de l'intelligence chez l'enfant (1948, The Origins of Intelligence in Children). He died in 1980.