Louis Agassiz

Born in Switzerland in 1807, Louis Agassiz trained in medicine and natural history before building an international reputation through his work on fossil fishes and glaciers. He argued that huge ice sheets had once covered large parts of the Earth, helping bring the idea of an Ice Age into mainstream scientific discussion.

After moving to the United States in 1847, he joined Harvard, where he taught zoology and geology and became a gifted public lecturer. He also founded Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, shaping the study of natural history in America through teaching, collecting, and close observation of the natural world.

Agassiz was one of the most famous scientists of his day, but his legacy is not simple. Alongside his scientific achievements, he defended polygenist theories about human races, ideas that have since been discredited and condemned. Today he is remembered both for his influence on geology and zoology and for the harm tied to those racial views.