Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794- 1871) was a pioneering female French marine biologist who in 1832 was the first person to create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms.

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She was born in Juillac, and travelled to Paris to become a dressmaker, where she became well known for creating a princess' wedding suit. She met and married the noble Englishman James Power in 1818 and the couple moved to Sicily.

In Sicily she begins to study natural history, in particular she made physical observations and experiments on marine and terrestrial animals, pioneering the use of the aquarium. She also studied molluscs and their fossils, in particular she favoured Argonauta argo. She was the first woman member of the Catania Accademia, and a correspondent member of the London Zoological Society and sixteen other learned societies.

Her name, "Villepreux-Power, " was given to crater on Venus in 1997 discovered by the Magellan probe.

References

• 4000 years of women in science