Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin

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Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin (1827, Namur-1903, Brussels) was a Belgian geologist and minerologist. His son was the mathematician Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin.

[edit] Academic career

Professor of geology and mineralogy at the Université catholique de Louvain (1863), and a doctor honoris causa of the same university (1876), he was vice president of the directing council of the geological map of Belgium (1903).

He studied humanities at the Collège Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, Namur, he studied mathematics in Paris, and for ten years devoted himself to literature and philosophy. He attracted attention by his literary and scientific criticisms in various reviews. Appointed professor in 1863 on the recommendation of Omalius d'Halloy, he instigated the teaching of geology and mineralogy at the University of Louvain.

His scientific publications, in numerous reviews from 1876 till 1903, established him as one of the foremost Belgian geologists and crystallographers. His memoirs on the microscopic study of the crystalline rocks of the Belgium and French Ardennes, several in collaboration with A.F. Renard, particularly the first (1876), which was crowned by the Royal Academy of Belgium, his numerous notes on Belgian carboniferous limestone, which fix the true stratigraphical relations of its beds and destroy Dupont's theory of lacunæ; his researches concerning the formation of the Valley of the Meuse; and his popularizing articles, which rank him with the first promoters of physical geography; finally his share in the preparation of the official geological chart of Belgium.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.