View source for Charles Barrois

{{Short description|French geologist and palaeontologist (1851–1939)}}
[[File:Lille museum histoire naturelle Barrois.JPG|thumb|Bust of Barrois in the Lille Natural History Museum]]

'''Charles Eugene Barrois''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Foreign Member of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]]}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Jacob | first1 = Charles| title = Charles Barrois. 1851-1939 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1947.0001 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 5 | issue = 15 | pages = 286–293 | year = 1947 | s2cid = 161622617}}</ref> (21 August 1851{{snd}}5 November 1939) was a French [[geologist]] and [[palaeontologist]].

==Life==

Barrois was born at [[Lille]] and educated at the Jesuit College of St Joseph in that town, where he studied [[geology]] under Professor [[Jules Gosselet]].<ref name="frs" />

His first comprehensive work was ''Recherches sur le terrain crétacé supérieur de l’Angleterre et de l'Irlande'', published in the ''Mémoires de la societé geologique du Nord'' in 1876. In this essay the palaeontological zones in the Chalk and Upper Greensand of [[Great Britain|Britain]] were for the first time marked out in detail, and the results of Dr Barrois's original researches formed the basis of subsequent work, and were in all leading features confirmed. In 1876 Dr Barrois was appointed a ''collaborateur'' to the French Geological Survey, and a professor of geology in the [[Université Lille Nord de France|University of Lille]] in 1877.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Barrois, Charles|volume=3|pages=438–439}}</ref> In 1936 he was appointed member of the [[Pontifical Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.casinapioiv.va/content/accademia/en/academicians/deceased/barrois.html|title=Homepage}}</ref>

In other memoirs, among which may be mentioned those on the [[Cretaceous]] rocks of the [[Ardennes]] and of the Basin of [[Oviedo, Spain]]; on the (Devonian) Calcaire d’Erbray; on the Palaeozoic rocks of [[Brittany]] and of northern [[Spain]]; and on the granitic and metamorphic rocks of Brittany, Dr Barrois proved himself an accomplished [[petrologist]] as well as [[palaeontologist]] and field-[[geologist]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1881 he was awarded the [[Bigsby medal]], and in 1901 the [[Wollaston medal]] by the [[Geological Society of London]]. He was chosen member of the Institute ([[Académie des Sciences|Academy of Sciences]]) in 1904<ref name="EB1911"/> and a Foreign Member of the [[Royal Society]] of London.<ref name="frs"/> In 1907, he created the ''Musée Houiller'' (Carboniferous Museum) alongside the Museum Gosselet in Lille.

Barrois's work covered the entire field of geology, and his work was rigorous and based on detailed observation. His fame spread internationally, even before he was recognized in his own country, and he was honored by many European and American academies. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1915.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=17 May 2011}}</ref> He was made Chevalier of the [[Légion d'honneur]] at the age of 37, and was named commander in 1923.

He died at St Genevieve-en-Caux and is buried in the East Cemetery in Lille.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |page=62 |title=Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Biographical Index Part One |access-date=2015-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Family==

He was the brother of zoologist [[Jules Henri Barrois]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070926225704/http://www.univ-lille1.fr/asa_2/ASA_histoire/serviteurs/barrois.htm University of Lille biography (French)]

{{Université Lille - Nord de France}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrois, Charles}}
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:French geologists]]
[[Category:French paleontologists]]
[[Category:Petrologists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Lille]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Lille University of Science and Technology]]
[[Category:Lille University of Science and Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Wollaston Medal winners]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities]]