François Ellenberger
François Ellenberger (born May 5, 1915 in Lealui , Northern Rhodesia , today Zambia ; † January 11, 2000 in Bures-sur-Yvette ) was a French geologist and historian of geology.
Life
Ellenberger was born in Africa as the son of the Swiss missionary Victor Ellenberger (1879–1974). His grandfather was the missionary David Frédéric Ellenberger . His brothers Paul Ellenberger (paleontologist and pastor) and Henri Frédéric Ellenberger (psychiatrist) were also distinguished scientists. Ellenberger went to a reformed school in Montauban , studied in Toulouse and from 1935 attended the École normal supérieure (ENS) with the Agrégation in Natural Sciences in 1937. He then worked in the geology laboratory at the Sorbonne under Louis Barrabé and Léon Bertrand . After serving as an artillery officer in World War II and being a prisoner of war in Edelbach in Austria from 1940 to 1945 (where he continued to be scientifically active and wrote publications), he continued his studies and received his doctorate in 1954 on tectonics and metamorphosis in the French Alps ( Vanoise massif ), where he was able to obtain microfossils in the metamorphic rocks, which allowed dating, and where he introduced new ideas such as a post-tectonic regional metamorphosis and a thrust geosyncline (Geosyncline des Nappes). In 1960 he received the Prix Viquesnel from the Société Géologique de France. In 1957 he became Maître de conférences at the Sorbonne and in 1962 he received the newly created chair for structural geology. He and his working group were based at the ENS and from 1965 in Orsay .
Ellenberger dealt specifically with the tectonics in the Montagne Noire and the Caledonids .
From 1972 he dealt with the history of geology and in 1976 was the founder of the French committee for the study of the history of geology (Comité Français de Recherches sur l'Histoire de la Géologie, COFRHIGEO). He also covered contributions by almost forgotten early geologists such as those of the engineer Henri Gautier and the Swiss Louis Bourguet , the engineer Antoine de Genssane , the diplomat Jean-Louis Giraud-Soulavie , Jean André Deluc , Johannes Goropius Becanus , Jean-André Deluc and Louis Cordier on, but also by more well-known pioneers of geology such as Giovanni Arduino , Johann Scheuchzer , Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Jean-Étienne Guettard , published an account of the early history of geology (before 1810) and dealt with the history of geological mapping in France.
An interest in Africa remained from his childhood and he organized research trips for the CNRS to Basutoland from 1955 to 1963 .
In 1972 he was chairman of the Société Géologique de France, whose Prix Wegmann he received in 1984.
Fonts
- Histoire de la géologie, 2 volumes, Technique et Documentation Lavoisier, Paris, 1988, 1994
- English translation: History of Geology, Volume 1: From Ancient Times to the First Half of the XVII. century, Rotterdam: Balkema 1996, Volume 2: The Great Awakening and Its First Fruits 1660-1810, Balkema 1999
- with Gabriel Gohau: A l'aurore de la stratigraphie paleontologique: Jean-André De Luc, son influence sur Cuvier, Revue d'histoire des sciences, Volume 34, 1981, 217-257, online
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ellenberger, François |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French geologist and geology historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 5, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lealui , Northern Rhodesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 11, 2000 |
| Place of death | Bures-sur-Yvette |