COLLET

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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23.9.1880 Fiez/CH - 13.10.1957 Genève/CH

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Léon Collet concluded his education in 1904 at Geneva University by the submission of a PhD thesis. He then moved to Scotland to collaborate with Sir John Murray at Edinburgh University. Upon returning to Geneva two years later, he was appointed Private Lecturer. He was appointed in 1911 professor of geology at La Plata University in Argentine but returned already after five years to direct the Swiss Federal Hydrographic Service in Berne until 1918. He then was appointed professor of geology and paleontology at Geneva University and was on leave at Harvard University from 1927 to 1929 during the winter semesters. In 1929, his and the chair of geographical physics were combined, with Collet from then as director of the Institute of geographical physics. He retired from Geneva University in 1944 after having been awarded Honorary Doctor from Glasgow University in 1933.

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Collet contributed particularly to topics of geology, paleontology, physical geography and to limnology. His first main work treated marine depositions in lakes, published in 1908, for which he was awarded Prix Jules Girard from the Geographical Society of Paris. A second main work followed in 1911 on the description of the High-Alps between the Arve and the Rhone Rivers, for which he was decorated with Prix Plantamour-Prévost from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Geneva. The 1925 book on Lakes compares those of Scotland with certain Swiss lakes. Collet was a Member of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences from 1912 and there particularly contributed to its Geological Commission. He also presided over the Swiss Geological Society from 1945 to 1948.

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_{Collet, L.W. (1908). Les dépôts marins. Doin: Paris.}

_{Collet, L.W. (1914). Charriage des alluvions dans certains cours d'eau de la Suisse. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles Genève, Série 4 37: 529-533.}

_{Collet, L.W., Mellet, R. (1917). Méthodes de jaugeage. Communication 10. Service des Eaux: Berne.}

_{Collet, L.W. (1925). Les lacs. Doin: Paris.}

_{Collet, L.W. (1926). The lakes of Scotland and of Switzerland. Geographical Journal 67(3): 193-213.}

_{Paréjas, E. (1957). Léon-William Collet. Verhandlungen der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 137: 305-315, with bibliography. P}