Michel Durand-Delga
Michel Durand-Delga (born May 18, 1923 in Gaillac (Tarn) , † August 19, 2012 in Fontainebleau ) was a French geologist and geological historian.
Life
Durand-Delga studied geology in Toulouse and Paris and was from 1945 taxidermist for geology at the Collège de France under Paul Fallot and from 1947 chef de travaux at the Institut national agronomique. In 1955 he received his doctorate from the Sorbonne . In 1958 he became maître de conférences and in 1960 professor (initially professor without a chair , from 1963 titular professor) of geology at the Sorbonne. From 1972 until his retirement in 1986 he was a professor at the University of Toulouse (he left Paris when the universities were reorganized there and took over the Laboratory for Mediterranean Geology in Toulouse).
He was a member of the National Committee of the CNRS and from 1971 to 1976 President of its Geology Section. In 1975/76 he was President of the French Geological Society. In 1980 he became a corresponding member and in 1996 a member of the Académie des sciences . In 2004 he became an honorary member of the International Committee for the History of Geology.
He dealt with the geology and tectonics of the Atlas , the Betic Cordilleras and the Arch of Gibraltar, the eastern part of the Pyrenees and Corsica . He also dealt with the history of geology, among other things he wrote biographies of Jules Marcou (1824–1898) and Marcel Alexandre Bertrand and brought the affair to the geologist Jacques Deprat to light (for which he received the Wegmann Prize in 2004).
In 1956 he was a laureate of the Academie des Sciences, in 1972 the Prix Prestwich and in 2004 the Prix Wegmann of the French Geological Society, in 1994 he received the Saint-Kliment Ohridski Medal of Honor from the University of Sofia and in 2008 the golden Jurassic ammonite of the IGCP .
He was an honorary member of the Polish, Bulgarian and Czechoslovak Geological Societies and the Academy of Sciences in Prague, was an external member of the Polish Academy of Sciences , the Royal Academy of Sciences in Barcelona, Hungary and Romania, and was an honorary doctor in Cagliari and Granada. Durand-Delga was a knight of the Legion of Honor and the Ordre national du mérite and officer of the Palmes académiques. For his work in World War II he received the Croix de guerre (he was a volunteer in Spain from 1943 to 1945 and fought in France, Germany and Austria in 1944/45).
Fonts
- Etude géologique de l'Ouest de la chaîne numidique, 1955 (dissertation at the Sorbonne)
- with Richard Moreau: Jules Marcou, pionnier français de la géologie nord-américaine, Paris: L´Harmattan 2002
- Marcel Bertrand, génie de la tectonique, Paris: Presse des Mines 2010
Web links
- Biography of Gabriel Gohau, Michel Durand-Delga (1923–2012): l'historien de la géologie, Comité francais d´histoire de la géologie, COFRHIGEO 2012 (French)
- Gohau, Hommage à Michel Durand-Delga (1923–2012), historien de la géologie, COFRHIGEO 2012 (PDF; 561 kB; French)
- Whos Who in France (French)
- Biography at the Academie des Sciences (French)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Durand-Delga, Michel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French geologist and geology historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 18, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gaillac (Tarn) |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th August 2012 |
| Place of death | Fontainebleau |