Philippe de La Harpe

Life & Legacy

Philippe de La Harpe (1 April 1830, Paudex – 25 February 1882, Lausanne) was a Swiss medical doctor known for research in the fields of geology and paleontology.
He studied medicine in Bonn, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Lyon, then received his doctor-surgeon licence from the University of Bern in 1854. He spent the winter of 1855/56 in England, where he made the acquaintance of several geologists, then settled as a doctor in Lausanne during the spring of 1856. In Lausanne, he worked as a physician for the remainder of his life, being very active in medical research and a member of various professional groups.
For several years, he was curator of the canton's geological and mineralogical collections (1858-1863). With Charles-Théophile Gaudin (1822–1866) and Gabriel de Rumine (1841–1871), he made significant paleontological findings in the Canton of Vaud. During the last decade of his life, he devoted his energies to the study of nummulites, of which he became an international authority.