Julien Fraipont

An eminent zoologist, paleontologist and anthropologist, Julien Fraipont held the position of rector for only a few months, dying in Liège on March 22, 1910, after taking over from Fernand Thiry five months earlier. He was succeeded by the botanist Auguste Gravis .

Born in 1857 and initially destined for a career in banking, he became a disciple of Édouard van Beneden at the University of Liège, before being appointed to teach courses in paleontology (1884) - following in the footsteps of Gustave Dewalque - and animal geography and systematic zoology (1885).

Appointed Professor Extraordinaire, he was promoted to the Ordinariate in 1889. From 1883, he worked in collaboration with Laurent de Koninck on fossil animals. At the same time, he was also involved in prehistoric archaeology: his study of the bones discovered at Spy in 1886, carried out in collaboration with Max Lohest, was to have an international impact, and his work was crowned with the Broca Medal of the Société d'anthropologie de Paris.

His many other publications in the fields of anthropology and zoology include those on the morphology of archiannelids (marine worms) and on okapis, discovered in the Congo in 1900. A member of the Académie royale de Belgique, he became director of the Sciences class in 1908.