Charles De la Vallée Poussin's father was the professor of
mineralogy and geology at the University of Louvain for around
40 years. The original family name was Lavallée, a name of
French origin. A great-grandfather of Vallée Poussin married
into the family of Nicolas Poussin, the leading French artist of
the 17th century, and being an artist himself this great-
grandfather added the name Poussin to his own name of La Vallée.
So Vallée Poussin came from a family with both artistic and
scientific interests, but it was also a family with literary
interests. From his boyhood he was encouraged by the
mathematician Louis-Philippe Gilbert but at first Vallée Poussin
thought he would become a Jesuit priest. He entered the Jesuit
College at Mons but he found the teaching there unacceptable. He
was particularly disappointed in the teaching of philosophy at
the College, so he turned to a different topic although he still
did not have mathematics as his main interest. He studied
engineering and obtained his diploma in th