Françoise Gasse (; born 1942; died 22 April 2014) was a French paleobiologist,

paleoclimatologist Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

and paleohydrologist. She specialized in environmental phenomena and more specifically the study of lacustrine sediments from ancient lakes in Africa and Asia region. F. Gasse had special impact in starting the first research projects that aim at rebuilding paleoclimatic variations and Quaternary paleoenvironments in different regions and precisely: the Sahara and the Sahel, East Africa and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, Western (Caspian) and Southern (

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

), and in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

(

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

). She was a member of PAGES (Past Global Changes)/ The

International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) was a research programme that ran from 1987 to 2015 dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change. Its primary focus was coordinating "international research on global-scale and regio ...

Career

She earned her PhD in geology in 1975 from the University of Paris with a thesis on the evolution of Lake Abhé. Her work became the first continuous dated African

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

diatom record. She entered the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and joined the Hydrology and Isotope Geochemistry lab of the Paris-Sud University in 1986, under the direction of professor Jean-Charles Fontes. She moved to the Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE) in 1998. In 2005 she became the first woman to receive the Vega Medal from the

Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG; sv, Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi) is a scientific learned society founded in December 1877. It was established after a rearrangement of various sections of the Anthropo ...

. In 2010, she was awarded the

Hans Oeschger Medal The Hans Oeschger Medal is an award bestowed by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) to recognise scientists who have made "outstanding achievements in ice research and/or short term climatic changes (past, present, future)." The award was establis ...

bestowed by the

European Union of Geosciences The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headqu ...

for her "contribution to the reconstruction of climate variability during the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

from continental archives and to a better understanding of climate mechanisms involved during this period."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasse, Francoise French paleontologists 1942 births 2014 deaths Women earth scientists University of Paris alumni Place of birth missing Paleobiologists Paleoclimatologists 21st-century French women scientists 20th-century French women scientists