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Saturday, 28 May 2016

Scientist of the day - Louis Agassiz

Swiss-born biologist, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz or Louis Agassiz was a man of many talents. Geologist, teacher, physician and an important innovator in the spectrum of natural sciences, Louis was known for his works on extinct fishes and glacier activity. Born to clergyman father and scientifically-inclined mother, Louis, pursued both religion and science with great fervour. Initially he was home schooled, but he went to Bienne to finish his secondary education, eventually landing in Lausanne to complete his elementary years. Louis studied medicine at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich, but showed his aptitude in natural history, especially Botany. After obtaining Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Medicine, Louis went to Paris, and under the mentorship of Humboldt and Cuvier studied geology and zoology. After he secured a teaching job at Neuchatel in Switzerland, he devoted thirteen years researching on various streams of natural science. Louis was offered professorship in Harvard after his successful lecture at the Lowell Institute in Boston. His teaching methods were different and innovative and changed the way natural science was taught in United States. In the last few years, he undertook many projects including the establishment of a permanent school for pursuing zoological science and marine zoology. Read on to know more about his life and works. 

Childhood & Early Life
On May 28th, 1807, Louis was born to Protestant pastor Jean Louis Rodolphe and Rose Mayor Agassiz in Motier in the tiny hamlet of Fribourg. Jean was the last in the long line of Protestant clergymen and infused a sense of religion in his child. His mother on the other hand encouraged Agassiz’s interest in science.

Major Work
His work ‘Recherchessur les poisons fossiles’ which includes all the information about fossil fishes is considered as a Bible for researchers interested in extinct life and species.
His ‘Essay on Classification’ was published in 1851 and consisted all his major thoughts about the natural world and how all living beings have been created by one God, a major point of contention between him and Charles Darwin.
Awards & Achievements
In 1836, Louis was awarded the ‘Wollaston Medal’ for his outstanding work on fossil ichthyology by the ‘Geological Society of London’.
In 1838, he was selected as the foreign member of ‘Royal Society of London’.
In the year 1846, Agassiz was given the position of the Foreign Honorary member of ‘American Academy of Arts and Sciences’.
Personal Life & Legacy
Agassiz was married twice. After the death of his first wife in 1850, he was married to Elizabeth Cabot Cary. She was a distinguished writer and a propagator of women’s rights from Boston.
He had three children from his first marriage. Once he settled down in United States, his two daughters and son Alexander joined him there.
He breathed his last on December 14, 1873 and was interred at the ‘Mount Auburn Cemetery’.
Trivia
Louis’s classification of the animal kingdom and his parallelisms influenced the thoughts of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution. However, Darwin was not a strict believer of parallelism, like Louis. Agassiz on the other hand was not a remote believer of evolution and saw the hands of One Creator everywhere in nature.