1. Joseph Vallot is known mainly for his fascination with Mont Blanc and his work in funding and constructing a high-altitude observatory below its summit, and for the many years of study and research work that he and his wife conducted both there, and at their base in Chamonix.
Joseph Vallot received many awards for his scientific achievements, including France's Legion of Honour.
Joseph Vallot was born on 16 February 1854 at Lodeve in southern France.
Joseph Vallot's father was Emile Vallot and he had a cousin, Henri - both of whom Joseph collaborated professionally with in later life.
Joseph Vallot received a classical education in Paris, first at the Lycee Charlemagne and then the Sorbonne.
Joseph Vallot subsequently undertook studies at the Laboratoire de Recherche des Hautes Etudes, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle and at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.
Joseph Vallot's interests were initially mostly in botany and geology, and he wrote articles on the plants of Africa and of the Pyrenees, publishing many alpine articles after 1886 in the annals of the French Alpine Club, of which he was a member of the Paris section.
Joseph Vallot later became the vice-president of the Societe botanique de France.
Joseph Vallot first visited Chamonix around 1877 and became fascinated with the glaciated mountains of the Mont Blanc massif.
Joseph Vallot became an alpinist herself; married the painter Paul-Franz Namur and went on to gain a female record for the ascent of Mont Blanc in 1920.
Joseph Vallot has been described as "one of the founding fathers of scientific research on Mont Blanc".
Joseph Vallot first scaled its summit in 1881 which triggered a life-long fascination with the 4,808-metre-high mountain and its environs.
Joseph Vallot settled in Chamonix and, in 1887, contrived to endure three nights encamped on its summit.
Joseph Vallot involved his cousin, the engineer Henri Vallot, who assisted him by taking measurements in the Chamonix valley, with a further set of automated readings being made half way up the mountain in the Grands Mulets Hut, whilst Vallot's group was encamped on Mont Blanc's ice-clad summit.
Joseph Vallot acted as the observatory's director for over 30 years.
In 1913, Joseph Vallot became the first person to publish research demonstrating the deterioration in physical performance with increasing altitude; he used squirrels as his study animals.
Joseph Vallot put his knowledge and his own observatory at the disposal of the French astronomer, Pierre Janssen when the latter initiated plans to construct his own observatory on the ice-capped summit of Mont Blanc.
For some thirty years, Joseph Vallot worked alongside his cousin Henri in the latter's ambitious project to survey and create a new, detailed map of the Mont Blanc massif at a scale of 1;20000.
Joseph Vallot did the high mountain survey and photography, whilst Henri surveyed at lower altitudes.
Joseph Vallot received a diploma from the Societe de Topographie de France for his contribution to his cousin's work.
In 1899 he and his cousin, Henri Joseph Vallot, lent their formal support to a proposal to construct an underground railway tunnel from the town of Les Houches to just a few hundred metres below the summit of Mont Blanc.
In 1895 Joseph Vallot was awarded a gold medal from the Societe d'Encouragement for his work in establishing the Mont Blanc Observatory.
Joseph Vallot was awarded the 'grand prix des sciences physiques' and the 'prix Wilde' of the French Academy of Sciences.
Joseph Vallot was a recipient of the Legion of Honour; made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Saints-Maurice-et-Lazare, an officer of the Order of the Medjidie, and an officer of the Order of Saint-Charles of Monaco.
From 1905 onwards, with his health deteriorating from the many long stays at high altitudes, Joseph Vallot started to spend his winter months in Nice.
In 1907, Joseph Vallot, who had partnered with the cinematographer, Leon Gaumont, was involved in the production of a 9.5mm film documenting the climbing of Mont Blanc.
In September 1920, at the age of 66, Joseph Vallot made his last climb to stay and to make scientific measurements in his high-altitude observatory.
When his health started to deteriorate further, Joseph Vallot left Chamonix and moved to his villa in Nice where, after a long illness, he eventually died on 11 April 1925.
Joseph Vallot's body is interred at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.