Joseph LeConte (February 26 1823 - June 6 1901) was an American geologist.
Of Huguenot descent, he was born in Liberty County, Georgia to Louis LeConte , patriarch of the noted LeConte family. He was educated at Franklin College , Georgia, where he graduated (1841); he afterwards studied medicine and received his degree at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845. After practising for three or four years at Macon, Georgia, he entered Harvard University, and studied natural history under Louis Agassiz.
An excursion made with Professors J. Hall and Agassiz to the Helderberg mountains of New York developed a keen interest in geology. After graduating at Harvard, LeConte in 1851 accompanied Agassiz on an expedition to study the Florida reefs. On his return he became professor of natural science in Oglethorpe University, Georgia; and from 1852 to 1856 professor of natural history and geology in Franklin College. From 1857 to 1869 he was professor of chemistry and geology in South Carolina College .
LeConte had four children grow to adulthood: Emma Florence LeConte , Sarah Elizabeth LeConte , Caroline Eaton LeConte , and Joseph Nisbet LeConte .
In 1869, he moved to California to help organize the University of California, along with his brother John LeConte .
He was appointed professor of geology and natural history at the University, a post which he held until his death.
He published a series of papers on monocular and binocular vision, and also on psychology. His chief contributions, however, related to geology, and in all he wrote he was lucid and philosophical. He described the fissure-eruptions in western America, discoursed on earth-crust movements and their causes and on the great features of the earths surface. As separate works he published Elements of Geology (1878, 5th ed. 1889); Religion and Science (1874); and Evolution: its History, its Evidences, and its Relation to Religious Thought (1888). In 1874, he was nominated to the National Academy of Sciences. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892, and of the Geological Society of America in 1896.
LeConte is also noted for his exploration and preservation of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. He first visited Yosemite Valley in 1870, where he became friends with John Muir and started exploring the Sierra. He became concerned that resource exploitation (such as sheepherding ) would ruin the Sierra, so co-founded the Sierra Club with Muir and others in 1892. He was a director of the Sierra Club from 1892 through 1898. His son, Joseph N. LeConte, was also a noted professor and Sierra Club member.
He died in the Yosemite Valley, California, on the 6th of June 1901, right before the Sierra Club's first High Trip . The Sierra Club built the LeConte Memorial Lodge in his honor in 1904. The LeConte Divide , LeConte Falls , Mount LeConte were named after him [1].
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