Dorothée Le Maître (; 1 September 1896 – 26 January 1990) was a French

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

known for her studies of

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

flora and fauna in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. She specialized in the study of

Stromatoporoidea Stromatoporoidea is an extinct clade of sea sponges common in the fossil record from the Middle Ordovician to the Late Devonian.Stock, C.W. 2001, Stromatoporoidea, 1926–2000: ''Journal of Paleontology'', v. 75, p. 1079–1089. They can be chara ...

Denise Brice, « Mademoiselle Dorothée LE MAITRE (1896-1990) » ''Ensemble XLVII'', 1, 1990. and was one of the first women to make expeditions to observe and collect fossils from their original sites.

Early life and education

Le Maître was born in Uzel, in the

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

region of France. She was educated at Angers Free University and received her bachelor's degree from the

Catholic University of Lille The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1926. She remained there for her doctoral studies and earned her Ph.D. in 1934.

Career and research

Her first paper was published in 1926, the same year she earned her bachelor's degree, and as she continued her work she was published 35 times. In 1948, after her Ph.D., Le Maître became a faculty member at the

University of Lille The University of Lille (, abbreviated as ULille, UDL or univ-lille) is a French public research university based in Lille, Hauts-de-France. It has its origins in the University of Douai (1559), and resulted from the merger of three universities ...

, where she was a geology researcher. In 1950, she became connected to the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

. Her research included work on the ''Spongiomorphides'' and included comparative research of North African and Sub-Saharan fossils to those of Europe.

Honors and awards

In 1941, Le Maître was awarded the Prix Fontannes, and in 1956 she received the Kuhlmann Prize. In 1959, she was honored by the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

with the Grand Prix Bonnet and was recognized for her research with the French Order des Palmas académiques.Denise Brice, « Mademoiselle Dorothée Le Maître et son œuvre (1896-1990) », ''Annales de la Société géologique du Nord'', Lille, 1991, 1 (2e sér.) : 15-18. She was the president of the Société Géologique du Nord in 1949 and 1950.

References

1896 births 1990 deaths French women paleontologists French paleontologists 20th-century French women scientists {{paleontologist-stub