Jean-Baptiste Charcot

Infobox Person
name=Jean-Baptiste Charcot


caption=
birth_date= 15 July 1867
birth_place=Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
death_date=16 September 1936
death_place=at sea, off Iceland
occupation=Polar explorer, doctor
known_for =
spouse=Jeanne Hugo
nationality=French
children=
Note=

Jean-Baptiste Charcot (July 15, 1867 – September 16, 1936), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893).

Jean-Baptiste Charcot was appointed leader of the French Antarctic Expedition with the ship "Français" exploring the west coast of Graham Land from 1904 until 1907. The expedition reached Adelaide Island in 1905 and took pictures of the Palmer Archipelago and Loubet Coast. From 1908 until 1910, another expedition followed with the ship "Pourquoi-Pas", exploring the Bellingshausen Sea and the Amundsen Sea and discovering Loubet Land, Marguerite Bay and Charcot Island, which was named after him.

Later on, Jean-Baptiste Charcot explored Eastern Greenland and Svalbard from 1925 until 1936. He died when Pourquoi Pas was wrecked in a storm of the coast of Iceland in 1936. A monument to Charcot was created in Reykjavík, Iceland by sculptor Ríkarður Jónsson in 1952.

References

* "Le "Pourquoi pas?" dans l'Antarctique 1908-1910", Arthaud, Paris, 1996, ISBN 2-7003-1088-8