Jean Orcel
Jean Orcel (born May 3, 1896 in Paris , † March 27, 1978 ibid) was a French physicist, mineralogist and chemist.
Orcel went to the Lycée Henri IV in Paris, was exempt from military service in World War I for medical reasons and studied natural sciences at the Sorbonne with a degree in 1917. He turned to mineralogy and became a taxidermist in 1920 and, from 1927, assistant to Alfred Lacroix at the Natural History Museum in Paris. During this time he dealt with the mineral group of chlorites and began his involvement in the geological mapping of France, especially in Corsica , the home of his wife. In addition, he was politically active on the side of the socialists and vice-president of the Union Rationaliste.
In 1930 he became Sous-Directeur and in 1937 Professor of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum and Head of the Mineralogy Laboratory at the École pratique des hautes études . During this time he dealt with optical mineralogy, especially opaque minerals, which also includes many ores. To do this, he developed a polarizing microscope for reflected light. During the German occupation in World War II, he first outsourced the minerals from the Natural History Museum to the province and participated in the resistance. He had contacts with Frédéric Joliot-Curie and joined the Communist Party. After the war he was commissioned by Frederic Joliot-Curie as part of the CEA to take up the uranium reserves of France and its overseas colonies and to prospect for uranium. Pechblende was found in the Saône-et-Loire and Haute-Vienne departments . In 1967 he retired.
He increased the mineralogical collection of the Natural History Museum in Paris, in particular by acquiring a large part of the extensive collection of Louis Vésigné and also dealt specifically with meteorites and their chemical composition.
In 1963 Orcel became a member of the Académie des Sciences . He was twice President of the French Mineralogical Society.
Honors
- Honorary membership in the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- In 1935 he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor and in 1947 an officer of the Legion of Honor.
- In 1959 his student (later professor at the museum) Simone Caillère named the mineral orcelite after him.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Orcel, Jean |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French physicist, chemist and mineralogist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 27, 1978 |
| Place of death | Paris |