Tribute to Yves Coppens

He was one of the most well-known faces of French research. Yves Coppens, who was born in Vannes in 1934, marked the history of his discipline while sharing his discoveries with the general public.

He joined the CNRS in 1956, leading expeditions to Chad and Ethiopia, as well as campaigns in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, South Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Siberia, and Mongolia. During these missions scientists gathered tons of fossils, representing so many invaluable clues regarding the history of hominids.

Of these fossils, fifty bones discovered in the Afar region of Ethiopia would leave a mark on collective memory, as they represent 40% of a hominin skeleton, which the French-American team that Coppens co-led with Maurice Taieb and Donald Johanson christened Lucy, after the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Discover our archive documents, including his inaugural lecture at the Colllege de France* on December 2, 1983, when he was just awarded the chair of paleoanthropology and prehistory.

* link to his speech at Symposium "Can Human Beings Accept Themselves as They Are?" in 2014 ici