Alexis Anastay Julien (February 13, 1840 – May 7, 1919) was an American

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

who taught at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's School of Mines for many years.

Biography

Julien was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on February 13, 1840. He graduated from

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

in 1859, but continued as a student in the chemical laboratory a year longer. In 1860 he went to the

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

island of Sombrero as resident

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

, and continued there until 1864, also making studies of its geology and natural history, especially of its

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s and land shells. He sent his collections to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, for which he also made meteorological observations, this island being the most southerly under its direction. In 1862 he made a geological survey of the islets around St. Bartholomew for the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

government, receiving in recognition of his services a gold medal from the

king of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the Instrument o ...

. Soon after the establishment of the Columbia School of Mines he became the assistant in charge of the quantitative laboratory, and in 1885 he was appointed instructor in charge of the department of

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

in the same institution. He was connected with the Michigan Geological Survey in 1872, making a special study of the crystalline rocks and ores of the Marquette district, and his lithological reports appear in the published volumes of the survey. In 1875, he began the study of the petrography of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

for the North Carolina Geological Survey, and served for three successive summers in the field. He visited the islands of

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

and

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

(1881–1882), and investigated the guano deposits and geology of these islands. The degree of

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

was conferred on him in 1881 by the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He married Annie Walker Nevius in 1882. He was a member of scientific societies, and was vice president of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1884. Julien was one of the founders of the New York Microscopical Society in 1880, and in 1883 was one of the originators of the Society of Naturalists of the Eastern United States. He retired from the Columbia School of Mines in 1907. Julien died at his home in South Harwich, Massachusetts on May 7, 1919.

Legacy

Julien is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Caribbean lizard, '' Phyllodactylus julieni''. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Julien, p. 137).

Selected works

He made numerous contributions to scientific literature. Among his papers were: *"On the Geological Action of the Humus Acids" (1879) *"On Spodumene and its Alterations" (1879) *"Building-Stones of New York City and Environs" (U. S. census reports, 1880) *"The Durability of Building-Stones in New York City and Vicinity" (U. S. census reports, 1880) *"The Genesis of the Crystalline Iron-Ores" (1882) *"Notice on the Microscopical Examination of a Series of Ocean, Lake, River, and Desert Sands" (1884) *"On the Variation of Decomposition in the Iron Pyrites, its Cause, and its Relation to Density" (1886)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Julien, Alexis A. 1840 births 1919 deaths American geologists Columbia University faculty Union College (New York) alumni Scientists from New York (state)