Charles Joseph Sainte-Claire Deville

Born in St. Thomas, he was the brother of chemist Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville.

Having attended at the École des Mines in Paris, he assisted Élie de Beaumont in the chair of geology at the Collège de France from 1855 until he succeeded him in 1874. He made researches on volcanic phenomena, especially on the gaseous emanations. He investigated also the variations of temperature in the atmosphere and ocean. In 1864, he became friends with Jules Verne who would later write Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) in which a scientist ascends the volcano of Stromboli, which Deville had descended into on an earlier expedition.

In 1852, he was one of the founders of the Société Météorologique de France, of which, he served as its first secretary. In 1857, he is elected member of the French Academy of Sciences in replacement of Armand Dufrénoy. In 1859, he was the first to achieve a complete ascent of Grand Combin (4314 meters) in the Pennine Alps. He is promoted Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1862. He died in Paris.

The Promontorium Deville, a lunar headland, was named after him.