Geneviève Meurgues

Geneviève Meurgues (4 February 1931 - 21 December 2021) was a French explorer, museologist, curator, conservator, chemical engineer and lecturer. As a professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, she specialised in the conservation of natural history specimens. She is noted for the preservation of the Roman boat found in Marseille and for her contribution to the establishment of the grande galerie de l'évolution du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris.

Early life Geneviève Meurgues was born on 4 February 1931 in Paris, into a family originally from Saint-Germain-de-Modéon. She had sister and brother, Christiane and Bernard.

Career

In 1962, Meurgues' work came to the attention of the botanist Roger Heim. He tasked her with setting up a scientific laboratory in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, dedicated to new methods of conservation and presentation of natural history museum collections. amongst others. thumb In 1985 she was awarded the Prix Jean-Perrin for her work to popularise science. From 1988, she devoted herself to the development of grande galerie de l'évolution du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle at the National Museum of Natural History. She worked on the choice of specimens, the interpretation and writing of scientific texts and the synopses and screen plays for documentary films, as well as designing games for the gallery. Meurgues was promoted to professor of the Museum in 1992. The grande galerie de l'évolution was opened on 21 June 1994, the day of the summer solstice, by President François Mitterrand. Meurgues escorted him through the gallery.

Geneviève Meurgues worked as the deputy director of the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution until her retirement in 1998.

Retirement Meurgues retired to Saint-Germain-de-Modéon, continuing to write articles in specialist magazines, sharing her knowledge in museology and scriptwriting, as well as restoring the family farm and creating an animal rescue refuge. She donated her scientific library to the Muséum d'Autun and is preparing a book Inventions et bricolages de la nature. She published Du jardin de Buffon à l'Afghanistan: mémoires d'une naturaliste in 2019.

Geneviève Meurgues died on 21 December 2021, in her 91st year. According to her last wishes, her cremation was private and her ashes will be spread in the "Les Grands Bouchons" wood, where her vocation as a naturalist was born.

Awards

Prix scientifique de la Fondation de France, with André Langaney, 1978 Prix de la Société française de physique, 1985 Le Relictocarabus meurguesianus, and insect discovered in Morocco, was named in her honour.

Publications

G. Meurgues et G. Ledoux, Intérêt de l'étude du sac interne dévaginé et en extension. Annales de la Société entomologique de France (N. S.), 2: 661–669. Influence de la composition minérale du milieu de culture sur la biosynthèse des Acides Nucléiques d'Aspergillus niger, thèse, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers 1967. La conservation des spécimens d'histoire naturelle, in: Museum International, Volume 38–2, 12 janvier 1986 . Parfums de Plantes, préface de Philippe Taquet, éd. du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 1987. . Un exemple de collaboration entre un musée et l’industrie pour l’exposition Parfums de plantes au Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, in: Culture scientifique et Technique de l’Entreprise, 1994. De la galerie de Zoologie à la grande Galerie de l'Évolution, in: La conservation - une science en évolution: bilan et perspectives, Actes des troisièmes journées internationales d'études de l'ARSAG, Paris 21-25 avril 1997 . Du jardin de Buffon à l'Afghanistan: mémoires d'une naturaliste, L'Harmattan 2019,

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