With pain and sadness, we have received news about 
the death of Prof. Jean Nicod.
Prof. Jean Nicod was Dr. Litt., retired Professor 
Emeritus of Physical Geography at the University Aix-
Marseille, Institute of Geography, Aix-en-Provence, 
honorary doctor of the University of Silesia (1994), and 
Corresponding member of the Slovenian Academy of 
Sciences and Arts (2003).
Prof. Nicod was an outstanding geographer, geo-
morphologist, researcher of karst phenomena and Medi-
terranean geomorphology, the founder of the French 
school of karst geomorphology, and of Association Fran-
çaise de Karstologie (French Association of Karstology), 
its first president (1977-1986), later its honorary presi-
dent. Additionally, he was president of Commision de 
Phenomène Karstique du Comité National de Géographie 
(Commission of karst phenomena at the National Geo-
graphic Committee), and the founder and editor of the 
journals Karstologia and Méditerranée.
Prof. Nicod was born in 1923 at V esoul, Department 
Haute-Saône (France), not far away from the karst pla-
teaux of Jura. Already as a pupil of the Vesoul secondary 
school (up to 1940) he was enthusiastically visiting and 
investigating caves in the surroundings of the town. He 
studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Nancy 
(1941-1944) and for the Diplôme d’Etudes supérieures he 
described karst phenomena of the Haute-Saône plateaux. 
In 1944 he became Master of Geography and after state’s 
examinations he obtained the title of Professeur Agrégé de 
Géographie (1947). As a teacher at the Lycée de Marseille 
he started cooperating with Professor Jules Blache, later 
rector of the Université d’Aix-Marseille, on preparation 
of his thesis titled “The Karst Morphology of the Lime-
stone Basse Provence” . During this time, he was teaching 
at secondary schools at Nancy and Marseilles, working 
as a researcher of C.N.R.S. (National Centre of Scientific 
Research) 1953-1955, acting as the head of the Regional 
Centre for Pedagogical Documentation at Marseilles, 
and working as the assistant, later master-assistant, at 
the Faculties of Aix-en-Provence and Nice. In 1967 he 
obtained the state’s doctorate. Throughout all the years 
until his retirement he was teaching at the University of 
Aix-Marseille.
In his thesis on “The Karst Morphology of the Lime-
stone Basse Provence” he demonstrated and described 
the existence of various types of karst, from Calanques at 
IN MEMORIAM
PROFESSOR JEAN NICOD  
(1923-2021)
ACTA CARSOLOGICA 50/1, 201-203, POSTOJNA 2021

the Mediterranean coast all the way up to Grand Canyon 
of Verdon. He also presented a plethora of hydro chemi-
cal observations as a novel useful tool to measure the rate 
of denudation. During his long career as the university 
teacher, he relentlessly emphasized the research prob-
lems of the karst of South-East France. This was espe-
cially evident in his excellent teaching courses as well as 
in his field work. Prof. Nicod was the founder and the 
director of the main karst project of France, “Karst evolu-
tion in Mediterranean and Alpine environments” in the 
frame of C.N.R.S. (1971-1983). This project enabled the 
foundation of the group named “Procope” established to-
gether with Prof. Pfeffer (Tübingen). The main intended 
aim of this collaboration was the study of erosion and 
alteration of dolomite. He was initiator and long-time 
co-worker of the two leading French karstological jour-
nals, Karstologia and the Méditerranée; in admiration of 
his research work and other contributions these journals 
have named Prof. Nicod an honorary president and an 
honorary member, respectively. 
Most of Prof. Nicod’s professional work is oriented 
towards karst regions of Provence and karst of France, 
but not exclusively. As a karstologist and geographer he 
dedicated his life’s work to karst in the broadest sense 
possible, namely to geomorphology, geomorphologic 
mapping, karst typology, evaporite karst, karst canyons, 
alteration of dolomite, cryptokarstic corrosion, palaeo-
karst, glaciokarst, tuffa, poljes, calanques, hydrological 
regimes, forests and the impact of fires, traffic, olive cul-
tivation, and water use, management and conservation, 
especially regarding harvesting the energy of water on 
karst. He was investigating the karst problems in the area 
of Mediterranean, including Dinaric Karst and karst of 
the Near East. Special attention merits his research con-
ducted in Slovenia and Croatia, his research on poljes in 
Dinaric Karst and in Eastern Serbia, and of Durmitor 
Mountains in Montenegro.
The first contact between Prof. Nicod and karst re-
searchers from Slovenia happened in 1972. From there 
on the contacts were regular, both personal and via cor-
respondence, as well as through exchange of professional 
and scientific literature. It can be said that the beginning 
of close contacts between young karstologists from the 
group of Prof. Nicod with his Slovenian peers, started 
with a brief but later recognized as an important visit 
of the author of these lines to Prof. Nicod at Aix-en-
Provence in 1972. This visit also included a field trip to 
some of the most impressive and scientifically important 
karst areas of Provence. This initial co-operation was for-
malized through agreements between the research insti-
tutions signed in 1975, later continued in the frame of 
the programme named Proteus. Prof. Nicod organized a 
series of bilateral round-tables on karst, during the tur-
bulent year of 1991the Franco-Slovene one. In the ma-
jority of his numerous publications on karst he has de-
scribed Dinaric Karst. Consequently, he authored about 
20 papers that are dedicated exclusively to this karst area, 
some of them published in Slovenian scientific journals. 
His book Les karsts dinariques, paysages et problèmes (Di-
naric Karst, landscapes and problems) published in 2003 
in collaboration with the Karst Research Institute ZRC 
SAZU at Postojna and its journal Acta carsologica and 
French Karstologia deserves a special mention. Slovenian 
karstologists are deeply thankful to Prof. Nicod for ena-
bling them to establish and nurture plentiful and fruitful 
contacts through mutual visits of Slovenian and French 
colleagues, for the invitations to numerous international 
meetings received from him, for visits to and detailed ex-
planations of French karst including multifaceted points 
of view and for keeping them informed on novelties from 
French karstological spheres. Additionally, Slovenian 
researchers in him always found a well-respected and 
rewarding partner for discussing karstological achieve-
ments. He was proud to be able to publish his state-of-
the art research results in adequate Slovenian literature, 
and he furthermore provided many reports on various 
karstological events in Slovenia, all of these being of par-
amount importance for the promotion of Dinaric Karst 
and of Slovenian karst research in France and world-
wide. On the other side it is French karst, being among 
the most important in Europe, that he was able to bring 
into focus of well-known Slovenian karstologists as well. 
This can be easily seen through the influence of French 
specialists reflecting in many publications of Slovenian 
researchers. And all these achievements are in a major 
part due to the influence and work of Prof. Nicod. These 
are also among the reasons that Prof. Nicod received the 
prestigious award of Slovenian Ministry of Science and 
Technology, that he was elected to become an honorary 
member of the Association of Slovenian Geographers, 
and to be included among the Corresponding members 
of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 
For many years he was a member of the Editorial 
Board of Acta carsologica, and he regularly informed 
French and broader professional spheres about its con-
tents. It is not so long ago that he sent congratulations 
and thanks for the achievements of the journal. It can be 
said that he has been actively participating practically all 
the time to his death. Not at field work, of course, but by 
publishing a variety of results from his treasured docu-
mentation and archive on karst, unpublished up to then. 
In important and comprehensive book edited by P. 
Audra on Grottes et karsts de France (Caves and karsts of 
France) (2010) there are 8 contributions by Prof. Nicod. 
In 2012 he has published the book Sources et sites des 
eaux karstiques (Springs and sites of karst waters). Ad-
IN MEMORIAM
ACTA CARSOLOGICA 50/1 – 2021 202

ditionally, there are his numerous articles in French jour-
nals, to mention just two the most exciting: Toujours les 
problèmes du lac de Besse-sur-Isole (Persisting problems 
of the lake Besse-sur-Isole) or Sur quelques sources lit-
torales et sous-marines autour de la Méditerranée (Some 
littoral and submarine springs round the Mediterranean) 
both published in Études de Géographie Physique. May-
be the last of his professional papers is Sites du Bas-Ver-
don (Sites of Bas-Verdon) published in Physio Géo 2018. 
It was a deeply touching moment when we received his 
last post card from his favourite lake Lac de Roselend in 
February of this year, written by his own trembling hand 
evoking memories of Dinaric karst.
We lost one of the last, maybe the last great scholar 
of karst science, who was a specialist but at the same time 
possessing large knowledge and broad experience, pro-
fessor of the old French school in the best sense of this 
word.
Andrej Kranjc
PROFESSOR JEAN NICOD (1923-2021)
ACTA CARSOLOGICA 50/1 – 2021 203