Louis Agassiz

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’.

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.

Initially home schooled, Louis went to Bienne to finish four years in secondary education. He completed his elementary education in Lausanne.

He studied at universities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich; he was educated as a physician in Germany, like many of his contemporaries.

Louis studied with Dollinger and Oken, both important German biologists who were followers of ‘Naturphilosophie’, a theory propagating metaphysical connections within the living world; a thought which indirectly influenced many of Louis’s work.

During the years from 1819 to 1829, two important scientists were working on collection of Brazilian fishes which was turned to Agassiz in 1826. One of them died, and Agassiz was given the responsibility of finishing the work. This interest in fishes has prompted many of Agassiz’s scientific researches in the later years also.

In 1832, after Cuvier’s death, Agassiz got a teaching position in ‘University of Neuchatel’, where for the next thirteen years he devoted himself in the fields of glaciology, palaeontology and systematics.

In 1836, Louis started studying glaciers, and was guided by colleagues like Venetz and Charpentier. His study led to the theory of Ice Age and how it had gripped Earth at one point of time.

During the phase of 1838-42, Agassiz brought out two volumes on fossil echinoderms.

In 1840, he published his findings in ‘Étudesur les glaciers’.

During his years in Neuchâtel, from 1842-46, he also completed his work on ‘Nomenclature Zoologicus’, a catalogue for names of all animals.

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.