Significant Contributions of Some Foreign Scientists in the Field of Biology

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (1845-1916)

from Russia. He did a lot of research in phagocytosis. This is the process that the body undergoes of
destroying old cells in order to make room for newer cells. He also did research in the immune system
and was a Nobel Prize winner.

Harald Rosenthal (9 June 1937 - now) was famous for his work with ecology. He helped develop the
fish farming practices that are used in the industry today.

Gunter Blobel (May 21, 1936 – February 18, 2018) was another German biologist who did work in
proteins. He was also a Nobel Prize winner. Charlotte Auerbach discovered mutagenesis.
Torsted Wiesel (3 Junes - now) was a Swedish biologist and a Nobel Prize winner. Susumu Tonegawa
was a Japanese biologist who did work in genetics and the immune system.

Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) pioneered the theory of evolution.

Edgar Douglas Adrian was a biologist who did extensive research on neurons and won a Noble Prize.
Sidney Altman was a Canadian who did extensive research on RNA and won the Nobel Prize.
Aristotle (Greek; 384-322 B.C.) He was a philosopher and scientist. He created a framework of
knowledge that served as the foundation for much of the science and philosophy of ancient and
medieval times, and therefore for science of the present day and is sometimes called the father of
biology. He described plant and animal specimens received from all over the Alexandrian empire.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian; 1452-1519) He is best known as an artist but he also had one of the best
scientific minds of his time. His research included zoology, geology and paleontology.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek(Dutch; 1632-1723) He was a cytologist who invented various single lens
microscopes and discovered various microbes (protists).
Carl Linné (or Carolus Linnaeus) (Sweden, 1707 to 1778) Linne is known as the father of taxonomy.
He constructed the hierarchic system of classification that group species by which we still nominate all
living things. He also discovered a lot of new species and compiled a book of all the species known in
its time.

Georges Cuvier (French; 1769-1832) He founded vertebrate paleontology as a scientific discipline

and created the comparative method of organismal biology. He also established the fact of the
extinction of past lifeforms.

Louis Agassiz (American, 1807-1873) He was a palaeontologist and one of the great scientists of his
day, a "founding fathers" of the modern American scientific tradition. He was also a lifelong opponent
of Darwin's theory of evolution but his criticisms on evolution helped provide evolutionary biologists
with insights.
Gregor Mendel, (Austrian, 1823-1884) He worked on genetics; he was a botanist who discovered
'inherited traits' by cross-breeding pea plants.

Louis Pasteur (French, 1822 - 1895) He was the first person to use a vaccine (which he named) and
understand that a weakened bacteria could protect the body. He created 'pasteurization' (a process
that kills microbes via heat).

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Spanish; 1852-1934) He is known as the 'father' of neuroscience. He

improved the Golgi method to stain neurons and described the microscopical structure of almost
every part of the nervous system.
Edward Drinker Cope (American; 1840-1897) He was a paleontologist and evolutionist. He believed
that changes in developmental (embryonic) timing, not natural selection, was the driving force of
evolution.

Barbara McClintock (American; 1902-1992) She was geneticist and won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for
her discovery that certain genes in corn can move from one position to another along the length of a
chromosome, causing genetic mutations.