Louis Agassiz

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28 1807-December 14 1873) was a Swiss-born American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists. He was a prominent supporter of polygenism.

Legacies

In the last years of his life he worked to establish a permanent school where zoological science could be pursued amid the living subjects of its study. In 1873 a private philanthropist (John Anderson) gave Agassiz the island of Penikese, in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts (south of New Bedford), and presented him with $50,000 to permanently endow it as a practical school of natural science, especially devoted to the study of marine zoology. The John Anderson school collapsed soon after Agassiz's death, but is considered a precursor of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is nearby.

Related Topics:
1873 - John Anderson - Penikese - Buzzards Bay - New Bedford - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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Agassiz is remembered today for his work on ice ages, and for being one of the last major zoologists to resist Charles Darwin's theories on evolution (an attitude he would not relinquish for the rest of his life). He passed away in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1873. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. His monument is a boulder selected from the moraine of the glacier of the Aar near the site of the old Hotel des Neuchatelois, not far from the spot where his hut once stood; and the pine-trees which shelter his grave were sent from his old home in Switzerland.

Related Topics:
Charles Darwin's - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Mount Auburn Cemetery - Hotel des Neuchatelois

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The Cambridge elementary school north of Harvard University was named in his honor and the surrounding neighborhood became known as "Agassiz" as a result. However, the school's name was changed to the Maria L. Baldwin school on May 21, 2002, in honor of the African-American principal of the school who served from 1889 until 1922. The neighborhood, however, continues to be known as Agassiz. http://www.cambridgema.gov/~CDD/cp/neigh/8/agassiz_ns_3.pdf

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Lake Agassiz is named after him, as well as several animal species, such as Apistogramma agassizi (Agassiz's dwarf cichlid), Isocapnia agassizi (Agassiz Snowfly), and Gopherus agassizi (Desert Tortoise).

Related Topics:
Lake Agassiz - Species - Apistogramma agassizi - Isocapnia agassizi - Gopherus agassizi

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A crater on Mars and a promontorium (cape like feature) on the Moon are named in his honour.

Related Topics:
Crater - Mars - Moon

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