The son of a Bernese official from Zimmerwald, Paul Brönnimann was born in Bienne, Switzerland on February 11, 1913. All of his academic studies were done in Basel where he obtained a teaching diploma in 1938, and a year later his doctorate in Geology and Paleontology under the direction of Manfred Reichel. During World War II, Paul was called into service and had to abandon his studies temporarily. Nevertheless, he managed to spend several months working on Tertiary larger foraminifera at the University of Lausanne. In 1944 he was appointed Privat-Docent at the University of Berne where he published his thesis on Tertiary orbitoides and Miogypsinidae from Morocco, as well as a series of articles on the discocyclinids.

In January 1946 Paul left Switzerland for Trinidad, where he was to begin a micropaleontological career that would take him over much of the world. His first post was that of Paleontologist and Senior Stratigrapher with Trinidad Leaseholds, Ltd. at Pointe-à-Pitre. Although he continued to publish on Tertiary larger foraminifera, he began work for the first time on the planktonics, and also became interested in the mangrove swamps and their foraminifera, an interest he retains to this day. It was in Trinidad that he met many of his closest friends and colleagues. Among them were: Walter Blow, Hans Bolli, Hans Kugler, and Hans Renz. His work on mangrove foraminifera resulted in a collaboration with Cushman himself. Together with Ruth Todd, who Paul first met in Cushman's home, they wrote several papers on Recent foraminifera from restricted environments.

In 1952, Paul accepted a position as Head of the Geological Laboratory with the Gulf Oil Company in Havana, Cuba. Although the time spent in Cuba was to prove the most rewarding experience of his foreign career, he left Trinidad with some reluctance for the friendships he would leave behind. The time spent in Trinidad was unquestionably among the happier periods of his life. In 1957 he went to work for Esso Standard Oil S.A. in Havana. It was in Cuba that Paul was to meet additional friends, Noel K. Brown, Jr., and Pedro Bermudez. In 1963 he published with Danilo Rigassi their classic paper: "Contribution to the geology and paleontology of the area of the City of La Habana." Outside of professional circles, he found the artistic world of Havana particularly fascinating and he would meet with painters and writers, especially in his own home.

In Cuba, Paul was devoted to his research projects. Numerous publications appeared with regularity, not only on planktonic foraminifera, but also on his "first love," the orbitoids. Other groups of fossils excited his interest: calpionellids, coprolites, the planktonic crinoids, and nannofossils. In 1955 he proposed a tentative zonation of the genus Nannoconus which was remarkable for its time.

Paul's career in Cuba ended with his sudden "exile" following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He left Cuba on December 6 and began work as Senior Paleontologist and Head of the Geological Laboratory at Esso Standard Libya Inc. in 1960. He was to stay in Tripoli for less than three years; too short a time to assimilate the way of life in North Africa, in many ways so different from that in the Caribbean. In 1962 he moved to the Esso Laboratories at Bègles, near Bordeaux, France where, as Senior Research Associate for Jersey Production Research Co. he was to spend the last period of his career with the oil industry.

Still only 50, Paul Brönnimann left France at the end of 1963 and returned to Switzerland. There he accepted the position as Professor of Paleontology at the University of Geneva, a post he would hold until his retirement in 1982 with the title of Honorary Professor. The University of Geneva offered great possibilities to take up his research again in earnest. He published a series of papers on the micropaleontology of the Lower Cretaceous of the Geneva region with his friend and colleague, Jean J. Charollais. Then, with Louisette A. Zaninetti, Paul began a new phase of his career studying Triassic foraminifera, an almost completely neglected field of study. They travelled widely together to collect material in the European Alps, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. Also with her, he rekindled his researches on mangrove foraminifera which he had all but abandoned fifteen years previously. This work on the mangrove environment was to take them to Brazil, the United States and the Pacific Islands.

Lately, Paul has worked almost exclusively on Recent foraminifera, their taxonomy and ecology. The agglutinating foraminifera have always fascinated him and his studies on the Trochamminacea led to a new collaboration with John E. Whittaker, who he met for the first time in Geneva in 1973. Many visits to the British Museum (Natural History) followed, and with the help of C. Geoffrey Adams, he gained access to the collections of Brady and Heron-Allen and Earland. Together, Paul and John have tackled many taxonomic problems, ranging from the Permo-Triassic foraminifera of S.E. Asia to their current work on a review of the trochamminaceans of the South Atlantic, described by Heron-Allen and Earland in the Discovery Reports of 1932-1936. In the course of his research, Paul was also a frequent visitor to the Cushman Collection at the Smithsonian, where he enjoyed many stimulating discussions with Richard Cifelli and Ruth Todd.

The micropaleontological output of Paul Brönnimann is large, and it continues to grow. It is also very varied. He has maintained an interest in most groups and his publications are noted for the quality of his observations, the care of his descriptions, the excellent illustrations and the originality of thought. The many collaborators and students he has had over the years have given him great pleasure, both scientifically and personally. Whenever the occasion arises he is always willing to encourage young people into paleontological research. He appears never to tire of his interests in the foraminifera, nor, it might be added, in living "la bonne vie!"

KENNETH M. TOWE, Smithsonian Institution

from: Journal of Foraminiferal Research, v. 15, no. 3, p. 147-148, July 1985

More information about Paul Brönnimann:

http://www.broennimann.com/fondation/memoire.html