Joseph Vallot

Joseph Vallot was a French scientist, astronomer, botanist, geographer, cartographer and alpinist and "one of the founding fathers of scientific research on Mont Blanc". He is known mainly for his fascination with Mont Blanc, his work in funding and constructing a high-altitude observatory below its summit, and for the years of research work that he and his wife conducted both there, and at their base in Chamonix. Both the observatory and the adjacent refuge that he constructed for use by mountain guides and their clients attempting the Mont Blanc summit still bear his name today, despite being rebuilt.