Asa A. (Asa Arthur) Schaeffer

Asa A. Schaeffer, short for Asa Arthur Schaeffer, was an American zoologist born in 1883. He is best remembered for studying amoebae and other single-celled organisms, and for turning that research into books and papers that were useful to working biologists.

His 1920 book Ameboid Movement, published by Princeton University Press, became one of his signature works. It explored how amoebae move and react, connecting careful observation with bigger biological questions. Records from the Biodiversity Heritage Library also show his later work Taxonomy of the Amebas, reflecting his role in describing and organizing knowledge about these organisms.

Schaeffer was affiliated with the University of Tennessee as a professor of zoology, and he also appears in the historical collections of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Even now, his work stands as part of the early foundation of modern cell biology and protozoology.