Auguste Pomel

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Nicolas Auguste Pomel (20 September 1821 – 2 August 1898) was a French geologist, paleontologist and botanist who worked mainly in Algeria. As a mining engineer, he specialized in North African vertebrate fossils and contributed to the geological mapping of the region. He was also a prolific botanist, naming many plant species and some genera.

Born in Issoire, France, Pomel studied at the Lycée de Clermont and earned a licence ès sciences. He was conscripted into the army, but after his service he became a civil engineer. Following the coup of 1851, his Republican beliefs led to deportation. He later served as Garde des mines in Oran (1866) and was promoted to first class in 1872. From 1876 to 1882 he served as Senator of Algeria for Oran.

In 1882 he was tasked with geological mapping of Algeria. Pomel named numerous plant species and even a plant genus, Pomelia, in his honor. He authored nearly 100 publications on North Africa, including Sur les Alcyonaires fossiles Miocènes de l’Algérie (1868) and Des races indigènes de l’Algérie et du rôle que leur reservent leurs aptitudes (1871). He died in Draâ El Mizan, Algeria, in 1898.