Arlette Leroi-Gourhan (1913–2005)

Arlette Leroi-Gourhan, née Royer, was born in Paris to a wealth French industrialist family. She attended the École du Louvre and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), where she met André Leroi-Gourhan. In 1936, they married, and she accompanied him to Japan for his research. She conducted her own research in paleobotany, then a fairly new field. She started a laboratory at the newly-established Musée de l'Homme that focused on the analysis of prehistoric cave deposits. The sites included North Africa, the Middle East, and multiple French and Spanish caves, including Lascaux. She served as a "director without position" at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), where her husband also worked. In 1971, she served as President of the Société Préhistorique Française (Prehistorical Society of France).