Édouard-Alfred Martel Édouard-Alfred Martel Édouard-Alfred Martel (1 July 1859, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise – 3 June 1938, Montbrison), the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation. Martel explored thousands of caves in his native France and many other countries, popularised the pursuit of cave exploration, introduced the concept of speleology as a distinct area of scientific study, maintained an extensive archive, and in 1895 founded , the first organisation devoted to cave science in the world. Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, Seine-et-Oise on 1 July 1859. Born into a family of lawyers, he studied at the
French Federation of Speleology was particularly active, and saw the first Bulletin of the CNS take the name of "Spelunca" (4th series), under the double patronage CNS-SSF. After their respective general assemblies on 25 and 26 November 1961, the (CNS) and the (SSF), decided to create a joint commission covering all of caving and speleology. After a consultation of cavers on 1 June 1963, at the national convention of Millau, the CNS and SSF assembled to form the French Federation of Speleology (FFS). On 3 June 1963, the new board elected the first office of the federation, which was composed of: The FFS then