author
Alexander Agassiz
1835–1910
A scientist-explorer with a second career in mining, he helped turn deep-sea expeditions and coral-reef studies into some of the most vivid marine science of his era. His life joined Harvard research, ocean travel, and the business world in an unusual way.
1 Audiobook
Seaside Studies in Natural History. Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay. Radiates.
by Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, Alexander Agassiz
About the author
Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on December 17, 1835, he moved to the United States with his family as a boy and later studied at Harvard. He became known as a marine zoologist and oceanographer, while also training in engineering and chemistry.
Agassiz made important contributions to the study of sea life, ocean bottoms, and coral reefs. He worked closely with Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, serving for many years as curator and then director, and he published major research on groups such as echinoderms. His scientific work was shaped by repeated ocean expeditions, which helped build knowledge of marine animals and the structure of the seafloor.
What makes his story especially striking is that he also played a major role in the Calumet and Hecla mining company in Michigan. That success gave him the means to support research and collecting on a very large scale. He died on March 27, 1910, while at sea on the RMS Adriatic, a fittingly dramatic end for someone whose career was so closely tied to the ocean.