Lluís Solé i Sabarís (May 18, 1908 - July 14, 1985) was a Spanish educator and geographer.

Life

Born in the city of

Gavà Gavà () is a municipality in the Baix Llobregat comarca, in the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It borders the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Viladecans and Castelldefels. Gavà has a beach and two population centers: the ci ...

, Solé's family moved to

Lleida Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...

when he was still young. In 1926, he met Pau Vila, through whom he discovered

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

, and graduated from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

three years later. In 1935, he helped found the Catalan Society of Geography, of which he was president from 1972 to 1981. Solé went on to study

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

in Germany, and wrote about the subject for his doctorate in 1936. Solé devoted his life to teaching, and after the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, he became chair of Physical Geography at the

University of Granada The University of Granada (, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apart from the city of Granad ...

. In 1943, he became a faculty member of the

, where he was the Professor who led the department of Geography. Carmina Virgili was one of his assistants.Carmina Virgili Rodon
, 10 March 2015, icog.es, Retrieved 5 November 2015 He established the university's branch of the Center for Advanced Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Institute of the Pyrenees. In 1981, he was awarded the

Creu de Sant Jordi The Creu de Sant Jordi (, in English language, English 'St George's Cross') is one of the highest civil distinctions awarded in Catalonia (Spain), surpassed only in protocol by the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Gold Medal of the G ...

by the

Generalitat of Catalonia The Generalitat de Catalunya (; ; ), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is Self-governance, self-governed as an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parli ...

. Solé died in 1985 at his residence in Capellades.

References

External links

Catalan Society of Geography: Lluís Solé i Sabarís
(in Spanish) 20th-century Spanish educators Spanish geographers 1908 births 1985 deaths Academic staff of the University of Barcelona People from Gavà 20th-century geographers {{Catalonia-bio-stub