Jean Aubert was a French engineer. In 1961, he used the idea of the German engineer Julius Greve from the last century to describe a pente d'eau (English: water slope), which was a way of moving boats up the gradient of a canal without locks. The design consisted of a sloping channel, through which a wedge of water on which the boat was floating could be pushed up an incline. This concept was used in both the Montech water slope^[2] and the Fonserannes water slopes.^[1][3]

• Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris.^[1]
• 1913 - École Polytechnique. Soon left for service in First world war. Returned in 1919.^[1]
• 1920-1922 - École nationale des ponts et chaussées.^[1]
• University of Paris (Bachelor of law).^[1]

• 1922-1932 - Engineer in charge of the navigation works in Paris.^[1]
• 1932-1961 - Professor in the Chair of Internal Navigation at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées. (English: National school of Bridges and Roads) ^[1]
• 1933-1945 - General manager and later chairman of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône.^[1]
• 1945-1953 - Chairman of the electricity board of the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français
• 1949-1967 - Chairman of the Rhine Navigation Company ^[1]
• years unknown - Chairman of the Société de Construction des Batignolles.^[1]
• years unknown - President, Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France.^[4]
• years unknown - Inspecteur Général des Ponts et Chaussées ^[3][4]
• 1966-unknown - Consulting engineer and honorary chairman of Spie Batignolles.^[1]
• Chairman of several other companies.^[1]

• In 1919 he published La Probabilité dans les tires de guerre and was awarded the Pierson-Perrim prize by the Académie des Sciences in 1922.^[1]
• His article Philosophie de la pente d'eau appeared in the journal Travaux in 1984 when he was 90 years old.^[1]
• In 1961 he published his revolutionary ideas on the pente d'eau, or water slope, which was designed to transfer barges from one level to another without the use of locks.^[1]

• Croix de Guerre in 1916.^[1]
• Académie des Sciences: Prix Pierson-Perrim 1922.^[1]
• Awarded the Caméré prize in 1934 by the Académie des Sciences for a new type of movable dam.^[1]
• Ingénieur Général des Ponts et Chaussées 1951,
• Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur 1960.^[1]

• Construction of the Pont Edouard-Herriort on the Rhône at Lyon.^[1]
• Design and construction of the Génissiat dam and Lonzères-Mondragon dam on the Rhône.^[1]
• Conception and design of the Denouval dam on the Seine near Andrésy, completed in 1980.^[1]

David Tew, 1984, Canal Inclines and Lifts, Gloucester: Alan Sutton.^[1]