Alphonse-François Renard

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Alphonse-François Renard (born September 27, 1842 in Renaix , † July 9, 1903 in Brussels ) was a Belgian petrologist, mineralogist and geologist.

Renard began an intended career as a Catholic clergyman in Rome. From 1866 to 1869 he was an overseer at the Collège de la Paix in Namur. From 1870, after joining the order, he studied philosophy and natural sciences at the Jesuit school in Maria Laach , where he became interested in the rocks of the surrounding Eifel. From 1874 to 1882 (resignation) he was professor of chemistry and geology at the Jesuit college in Leuven. He also became a curator at the Natural History Museum in Brussels . In 1888 he became professor of geology, mineralogy and paleontology at the University of Ghent , which he remained until his death. He was ordained a priest in 1877, but resigned from the Jesuit order in 1883 . In 1901 he left the Catholic Church entirely.

In 1876 he published a book on the mineralogy and stratigraphy of igneous rocks in Belgium and the Ardennes with Charles Louis de la Vallée-Poussin . He dealt with metamorphic rocks, especially in Belgium, and with the geological evaluation of the Challenger expedition together with John Murray (published in the official report of the expedition in 1891). This also provided information about manganese nodules on the sea floor, the formation of zeolitic crystals on the sea floor at temperatures around zero degrees Celsius or below, and the deposition of cosmic dust .

In 1900 his textbook Notion de Minéralogie was published .

He was an honorary member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1885 he received the Bigsby Medal from the Geological Society of London . In 1886 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . A street in the Brussels district of Ixelles is named after him. The same applies to Renard Island , Cape Renard and False Cape Renard in Antarctica.

He was a member of the Masonic Lodge Les Amis Philanthropes .

In 1902 he married.

literature

  • Article in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 2, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Renard, Alphonse-François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian geologist and mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Renaix
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1903
Place of death Brussels