Eugène Louis Melchior Patrin (3 April 1742, Lyon – 15 August 1815, Saint-Vallier) was a French mineralogist and naturalist. His botanical abbreviation is: Patrin.
Following two years of travels in Germany, Hungary and Poland, he spent eight years in Russia (Siberia) (1780–87), conducting geological and botanical investigations. He extensively travelled the Urals, the Altai Mountains and other areas of Siberia, with his mineral collections being shipped back to St. Petersburg ahead of his return. This material, however, was partially confiscated by Pyotr Simon Pallas, who kept the best items for his personal cabinet. Patrin's remaining pieces were subsequently offered to the collection in Paris, provided that the group not be broken up.[1] In 1804 he was appointed first librarian of the .[2] From 1790 to 1815, he was a member of the .[3]
He made important contributions regarding the "mineralogy section" of Buffon's massive work on natural history, "".[4] [5] In 1788 he provided a modern description of aurichalcite, giving it the name .[6] The plant genus Patrinia (family Valerianaceae) was named in his honor by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu.[7]