Eugène Prost

The Royal Decree of May 8, 1924 now allows the Academic Council to choose its Rector from among three candidates put to the vote. The term of office remained 3 years. In 1925, during Eugène Prost's rectorship, girls' middle schools were transformed into lycées. This upheaval put an end to the requirement for girls to pass the central jury to obtain the diploma required for university enrolment.

Eugène Prost was born in Liège on December 2, 1861. He received his doctorate in Chemical Sciences from the University of Liège in 1884. Spotted by his professors while still a student, he was immediately appointed as a preparator in the department of Professor de Koninck, who taught analytical chemistry. The following year, he was appointed assistant to Professor Swing for the General Chemistry course, a position he held until 1888.

He then took a break from university life. Between 1889 and 1892, he worked for Société G. Dumont et frères, a factory producing zinc, lead and sulfuric acid. Prost was head of the central laboratory.

He returned to the University of Liège in 1894 to take up a post as head of analytical chemistry and docimasie, and became a repetiteur of this course in 1895. At this time, Prost was working in the practical work of masters with whom he remained in the background. But at the start of the 1895-1896 academic year, he was authorized to teach a free course - i.e., outside the curriculum - entitled Chapitres spéciaux de chimie analytique (Special Chapters in Analytical Chemistry). These were his modest first steps into teaching.

In 1937, the École Spéciale de Commerce was created, attached to the Faculty of Law. Prost was asked to teach a course on Belgian industrial products. The following year, he taught a course in industrial and commercial geography to students from the Faculties of Science and Law.

It was in 1905 that his somewhat incipient career took off. At the age of 44, he was a late bloomer at the time. He became Professor Extraordinaire at the Faculté Technique, with responsibility for a course that suited him better, Metallurgy of metals other than iron. He remained attached to the École Spéciale de Commerce for the course he was already teaching there, but changed its title in 1906 to Natural and Manufactured Tradable Products. He was finally promoted to full professor in 1910. His career stabilized, unfortunately on the brink of the First World War. But Prost had made his mark and was appreciated by his students, future civil engineers, and in 1912 his award-winning major work Métallurgie des métaux autres que le fer was published.

He served as rector between 1924 and 1927, a time when the post-war period was beginning to bear fruit, and the University of Liège was once again looking resolutely to the future with optimism, particularly in the Technical Faculty, the rector's own, where foreign students were flocking to make its reputation.

He was granted emeritus status in 1931, and died in 1940.