Louis Agassiz

Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Swiss-American naturalist, one of the best informed and most capable biologists of his day, with an ability to awaken the public's interest in natural science.

Born in Môtiers, Switzerland, Agassiz was educated at the universities of Zürich, Heidelberg, Erlangen, and Munich. In 1826 he prepared a description of Brazilian fish from materials collected by the Bavarian naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix. The work attracted the notice of the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, with whom Agassiz later studied in Paris. From 1832 to 1846 Agassiz was professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel. During this time he prepared and published Researches on Fossil Fishes (1833-1844) and Studies on Glaciers (1840). As a result of his observations in the Swiss Alps, he introduced the theory that at one time most of the earth was covered by glaciers (see Ice Ages). In 1846 Agassiz delivered a course of lectures at Lowell Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, which resulted in his appointment in 1848 as professor of natural history in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. He held this position for the rest of his life, and he also founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.

Agassiz believed in a theory of epochs of creation. This theory held that earth's organisms tend to become more complex and better suited to their environment over time through a series of independent acts of creation by a Supreme Being. Agassiz's theory opposed the mechanisms outlined by Charles Darwin in his theory of evolution. Agassiz explored North America, including the Lake Superior region (1848) and the Florida coral reefs (1850-1851). From 1865 to 1866 he traveled in Brazil; the results of his research there were published in A Journey in Brazil (1868). In 1872 he made a journey to California around Cape Horn. The following year he established a summer school of zoology on Penikese Island, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.