biography
| name: |
Agassiz, (Jean) Louis (Rodolphe)
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pronunciation:
[agasee]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1807–73)
|
| biography:
| Geologist, born in Motier-en-Vuly, W Switzerland, the father of Alexander Agassiz. He received an MD in Erlangen, Germany (1830), but preferred his early interest in natural science. He became professor of natural history at Neuchâtel, Switzerland (1832), and combined ichthyology, geology, and palaeontology in his classic, Récherches sur les Poissons Fossiles (5 vols, 1833–44). His studies of Alpine glaciers and glacial boulders led to the monumental works, Études sur les Glaciers (1840, Studies of Glaciers) and Système Glaciaire (1847), which showed that glaciers move, and demonstrated the existence of a geologically recent ice age. In 1846 he went to the USA on a lecture tour, was appointed professor of natural history at The Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard (1847–73), and founded Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (1859), to which he gave all his collections. With his second wife, Elizabeth Cabot Cary (1822–1907), he conducted a young ladies' school in Cambridge. Elizabeth was a naturalist and teacher, and later became president of the Society for Collegiate Instruction of Women and its successor, Radcliffe College (1894). Agassiz was a popular lecturer who opposed Darwin's theories on religious grounds, and continued to teach, publish, and make zoological expeditions until his death. He published four of ten projected volumes of Contributions to the Natural History of the United States (1857–62). In his later years he became a US citizen. |
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