Charles Louis de la Vallée-Poussin
Charles Louis Joseph Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin (born April 6, 1827 in Namur , † March 15, 1903 in Brussels ) was a Belgian geologist.
De la Vallée Poussin was the son of a French officer and a Flemin. He studied at the Collége Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix in Namur and then in Paris mathematics at the École polytechnique , but then devoted himself to literature and philosophy for ten years, including as a critic in Paris. In 1863 he became professor of geology and mineralogy at the Catholic University of Leuven (on the recommendation of the Belgian geologist Jean Baptiste Julien d'Omalius d'Halloy ).
He examined in particular the metamorphic and crystalline rocks of the Ardennes , often with Alphonse-François Renard , but also the stratigraphy of the limestones of the Ardennes carbonate. One of the resulting monographs received the award of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences in 1876. He also wrote popular science articles and was instrumental in the preparatory work for the geological map of Belgium. In the year of his death, 1903, he was the vice-president of the relevant commission.
He was the father of the mathematician Charles-Jean de La Vallée Poussin .
In 1876 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Leuven. In 1885 he became a member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences.
Fonts
- with Renard: Mémoire sur les caractères minéralogiques et stratigraphiques des roches dites plutoniennes de la Belgique et de l'Ardenne française, Brussels 1876
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vallée-Poussin, Charles Louis de la |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vallée-Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier de la (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1827 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Namur |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 15, 1903 |
| Place of death | Brussels |