Named in honor of Paul Melchior, well-known geophysicist, general secretary of the IUGG since 1971 and director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. His demonstration of the relationship of astronomical phenomena (precession-nutation) and geophysical phenomena (earth tides) was the basis of the IAU nutation series adopted in 1979. His development of a world tidal gravitational network permitted the evaluation of the indirect effects of the oceanic tides and revealed a correlation between the amplitudes of the earth tides and tectonic features. (M 16442) _ _.