Éliane Basse


Éliane Basse or Éliane Basse de Ménorval was a French paleontologist and geologist who became research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research in 1960.

Life

A student at the École normale supérieure in Sèvres for three years. She became professor-head of laboratory at the Lycée de Troyes and then was a doctoral fellow at the French National Museum of Natural History for two years.
She earned a doctorate in science and was named Scientific Director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research and associate professor of natural sciences.
Basse married fellow paleontologist Hervé de la Goublaye de Ménorval on 11 June 1935 and assumed the name Éliane Basse de Ménorval.

Research

To research her doctoral thesis, Basse left for the island of Madagascar as project manager for the Museum of Natural History and was attached to the local mining service. She continued her research there in an area approximately bounded by Sikili, Mangoky River, and Ménamaty, which is the area where the town of Ankazoabo is located today in the southwestern part of the island. She traveled in these regions alone with Bara porters, a Malagasy surveyor and a Hetsiléo cook. After returning to Paris, she defended her thesis in 1935 about plant groups in southwestern Madagascar, earning her Ph.D.
She was named a Fellow of the National Science Fund and appointed lecturer at CNRS before becoming research director.
Based in Paris, she collaborated on the geological map of Luxembourg and then that of France. She was also responsible for paleontological missions in the Central Atlas mountains of Tunisia and several other geological missions.
She became associate assistant to the geological map of France, and in the 1960's held the post of director of the prehistoric antiquities in the district known as "Paris-Nord". Author Anick Coudart wrote, "As such, she was the first woman in France entrusted with the administration of archaeological excavations".

Associations

She was made an honorary member of the Palaeontological Society of India in 1956.
Basse was elected a corresponding member of the fourth section of the Academy of Overseas Sciences on 7 December 1957, and became a full member on 17 May 1968.

Death

Basse died in 1985 in Clamart, France. In her obituary, published in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, 31 January 1985, she is remembered as the "Countesse de la Goublaye de Ménorval" a title she acquired with her marriage.

Select publications

Basse authored more than a hundred scientific publications. Only five are listed here.