Augusto Nicolás Martínez

Augusto Nicolás Martínez (1860 to 1946) was an Ecuadorian agronomist, geologist, farmer, researcher, educator and mountaineer, the son of Nicolás Martínez Vásconez and Adelaida Holguín Naranjo. He studied geology and German as a young man, conducted geological studies at Antisana in 1880 and worked as an assistant at the Astronomical Observatory of Quito, publishing Historia de la Ciencia Ecuatoriana in 1896. He directed the geology section in the government of General Eloy Alfaro and served in the army in the liberal revolution of 1895. From 1907 he settled in Ambato, where he held the Chemistry Chair until 1927. He was fluent in English, French, German and Spanish, was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences in 1920, and the Colegio Augusto Nicolás Martínez in Ambato, established in 1994, is named in his honor.