Louis Agassiz
- Category : 1807-births
- Type : MGE
- Profile : 6/3 - Role Model / Martyr
- Definition : Split - Small (3,12,36,52)
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Duality 1
Biography
Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel. Later, he accepted a professorship at Harvard University in the United States.
One of the great scientists of his day, and one of the "founding fathers" of the modern American scientific tradition, Louis Agassiz remains something of a historical enigma. A great systematist and paleontologist, a renowned teacher and tireless promoter of science in America, he was also a lifelong opponent of Darwin's theory of evolution. Yet even his most critical attacks on evolution have provided evolutionary biologists with insights.
He was a dedicated, tireless scientist, ambitious publicity-seeker, committed educator, dominating task-master, rabid denier of evolution, theoretical racist, voracious collector of specimens.
He died 14 December 1873.