Franz Joseph Hugi

Franz Joseph Hugi ( born January 23, 1791 in Grenchen, † March 25, 1855 in Solothurn ) was a Swiss geologist and researcher Alps.

He studied Roman Catholic theology in Landshut, spent some time in Vienna and received priestly ordination in 1819. He then became a teacher at the Solothurn orphanage school. In Solothurn, he founded the Naturforschende Cantonal Society, the Natural History Museum, which he relinquished in 1830 to the city of Solothurn, 1836 and also the botanical garden. After a time acted as Director of the orphanage and teacher at the secondary school of Solothurn, he received in 1833 as professor of physics and 1835 of natural history at the newly opened Canton Solothurn, but was in 1837 dismissed because he had converted to Protestantism. In 1844 he became an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern.

His theory on the glacier he developed in the writings about the nature of glaciers and winter trip to the Arctic Ocean (Stuttgart 1842) and The glaciers and the erratic blocks ( Solothurn 1843).

On August 19, 1828, he tried to climb the Finstaarhorn together with the two mountain guides Jakob Leuthold and Johann During. They arrived together, a 4000 m high-lying saddle of Nordostgrats that bears his name today. There he had to stay behind while his two companions likely than the first climbers arrived to the summit because of a foot injury.

In 1835 he traveled for scientific purposes a part of North Africa, Sicily and Italy. The results of his observations of marine luminescence and the movements of the sea, he shared with the Broad to a general view of nature, the first volume entitled The Earth (1841 Solothurn ) contributes as an organism. Otherwise are of him nor the Natural History Alps Tours ( Solothurn 1830) to mention. After Hugi is the Hugihorn, a 3647 m high mountain near the Lauteraarhorn named.