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François-Alphonse Forel (February 2, 1841 – August 7, 1912) was a
Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...
physician and scientist who pioneered the study of
lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...
s, and is thus considered the founder, and the Father of
limnology Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteris ...
.Prof. F. A. Forel. Nature 89, 638–639 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/089638b0 Limnology is the study of bodies of fresh water and their biological, chemical, and physical features.


Childhood and Family

Forel was born in
Morges, Switzerland Morges (; la, Morgiis, plural, probably ablative, else dative; frp, Môrges) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud and the seat of the district of Morges. It is located on Lake Geneva. History Morges is first mentioned in 1288 as '' ...
on
Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...
. His father, François Marie Etienne Forel (1765-1865) was a well-respected historian and a jurist and was a strong influence in Forel's life. From a young age, François-Alphonse Forel became involved in some of archaeological studies of his father's colleagues. Several of Forel's family members were also respected scholars and scientists.


Education

Forel began his education at the Collège de Morges. Eventually, he left Morges for secondary school in Geneva at the Gymnase de Genève. There, he studied the natural sciences and medicine. Then he attended university at Académie de Genève where he obtained a Bachelor of Letters and a Bachelor of Physical and Natural Sciences. When he turned 18, he left his home country to attend the Académie de Montpellier in Montpellier, France. He studied at the university for two years and spent a portion of time after that, studying medicine on his own in Paris, France. Later, he moved to Germany and studied at the University of Würzburg. In the year 1865 when Forel was 24 year old, he obtained a doctorate degree in Medicine and Obstetrics.


Work and Professional Life

Shortly after obtaining his doctoral decree, Forel returned to Lake Geneva in Switzerland. There, he began his own study of the lake which encompassed zootomy, physics, chemistry, biology, natural history, and even economics. In 1869, he became a science professor at the University of Lausanne (then known as the Academy of Lausanne) which was located near his home at Lake Geneva. He taught histology, anatomy, and physiology. But his real love was the lake;Vincent, Warwick F., and Carinne Bertola. "Lake physics to ecosystem services: Forel and the origins of limnology." Limnology and Oceanography e‐Lectures 4, no. 3 (2014): 1-47. https://doi.org/10.4319/lol.2014.wvincent.cbertola.8 his investigations of
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 hereditar ...
, chemistry, water
circulation Circulation may refer to: Science and technology * Atmospheric circulation, the large-scale movement of air * Circulation (physics), the path integral of the fluid velocity around a closed curve in a fluid flow field * Circulatory system, a bio ...
, and
sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to t ...
, and most importantly their interactions, established the foundation of a new discipline. He named his activity ''limnology'' in analogy with oceanography ("limnography" could have been confused with the limnograph, which measures water level in lakes). In his chief work, ''
Le Léman , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial lak ...
'' was published in three volumes between 1892 and 1904. The volumes covered a range of topics including the definition of limnology, as well as the geographic settings, geology, climatology, hydrology and bathymetry of lake systems. The Monograph then went on to describe lacustrine hydraulics, seiches, waves and currents, temperature stratification, optics, acoustics and chemistry. This was cemented by his publication of a handbook on the topic. He discovered the phenomenon of
density current In fluid dynamics, a gravity current or density current is a primarily horizontal flow in a gravitational field that is driven by a density difference in a fluid or fluids and is constrained to flow horizontally by, for instance, a ceiling. Typic ...
s in lakes, and explained
seiche A seiche ( ) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbors, caves and seas. The key requirement for formation o ...
s, the rhythmic oscillations observed in enclosed waters. He is also known for his work on the optical phenomenon the Fata Morgana which can be seen when looking out across Lake Geneva among other places. In collaboration with Wilhelm Ule, developed the Forel-Ule scale, used to evaluate the color of a body of water. In a totally different field, in cooperation with the Italian seismologist
Michele Stefano de Rossi Michele Stefano de Rossi (30 October 1834, Rome – 23 October 1898, Rocca di Papa) was an Italian seismologist. He was a younger brother to archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822–1894). He received his education at the University o ...
, he developed the
Rossi–Forel scale The Rossi–Forel scale was one of the first seismic scales to represent earthquake intensities. Developed by Michele Stefano Conte de Rossi of Italy and François-Alphonse Forel of Switzerland during the late 19th century, it was used commonly f ...
to describe the intensity of an earthquake.


End of Life & Legacy

By the time of his death in 1912, he had amassed a total of 288 academic publications. So wide was his knowledge that he was referred to as "the Faraday of Lakes" in his obituary in Nature Magazine. He was well regarded by the Scottish scientific community, visiting at least once, and also being elected as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The
Institute F.-A. Forel An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes c ...
of the
University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...
is named after Forel. Foreltinden, a mountain at
Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern N ...
, Svalbard, is named after him. Forel (station) in Maule, Chile is named after him after he lived close to the station. The submersible F.-A. Forel (PX-28) is named after him and has been used to make scientific measurements in Lake Geneva.


References


External links

* * 1841 births 1912 deaths People from Morges Swiss limnologists Hydrologists University of Lausanne faculty {{Switzerland-bio-stub