[1][2] Son of engineer, Eugène Gounelle, who installed the first telegraph line from Paris via Rouen to Le Havre, Pierre-Émile also trained first as an engineer.
He is chiefly remembered for his investigations of Cerambycidae found in Brazil.
He bequeathed his entomological books to the Société Entomologique de France.
[3] In Brazil, he collected plants that later became part of the herbarium at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.
The botanical species – Barbacenia gounelleana, Leiothrix gounelleana, Pilosocereus gounellei and Pseudopilocereus gounellei are named after him.