German naturalist (1847-1875)
Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm (11 September 1847 – 13 September 1875) was a German naturalist who served aboard the Challenger expedition .
Willemoes-Suhm was born in Glückstadt , Duchy of Holstein .[ 1] After starting to study law at the University of Bonn , Willemoes-Suhm left Bonn to study zoology at Munich under Professor Karl von Siebold .[ 1] Beginning in April 1869, he studied at the University of Göttingen , and gained his doctorate there. In 1870, he moved to Kiel , where he met Professor Karl von Kupffer , and there he collected specimens in the Bay of Kiel , which he analysed for his habilitation .[ 1] In 1871, Willemoes-Suhm began to lecture at the University of Munich . In 1872, he was on board the Phønix with the Danish Faeroer Expedition , and described the vertebrates and polychaetes of the Faroe Islands .[ 2] The Phønix docked in Leith , and while in Edinburgh , Willemoes-Suhm met Charles Wyville Thomson , who would lead the Challenger expedition later that year.[ 3]
Willemoes-Suhm joined the Challenger expedition at the last minute,[ 4] and worked on many of the crustaceans that voyage discovered. He died on 13 September 1875, during the journey from Hawaii to Tahiti ,[ 5] and was buried at sea after a short illness with erysipelas .[ 6] The genus Willemoesia is named after him, as is Suhm Island in Royal Sound (Kerguelen Archipelago ), which was first charted on the voyage of the H.M.S. Challenger , and the Sohm Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic Ocean .[ 7] [ 8] He was awarded the Challenger Medal posthumously .[ 9]
See also
References
^ a b c Kortum, Gerhard (1996). "The German Challenger of Neptune" (PDF) . The History of Oceanography Newsletter . No. 8. International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. pp. 3–6. ISSN 1013-3917 . Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2010.
^ "Periods of investigation" . BIOFAR . Kaldbak: Havlívfrøðiliga royndarstøðin. 23 May 2005. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010.
^ Aitken, Frédéric; Foulc, Jean-Numa (2019). The First Explorations of the Deep Sea by H.M.S. Challenger (1872–1876) . From Deep Sea to Laboratory. Vol. 1. London: ISTE. doi :10.1002/9781119610953 . ISBN 978-1-78630-374-5 . S2CID 146750038 .
^ Corfield, Richard (February 2008). "The chemist who saved biology" (PDF) . Chemistry World . Vol. 5, no. 2. London: Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 56–60. ISSN 1473-7604 .
^ Thomson, C. Wyville (1875). "Dr. R. von Willemoes-Suhm" . Nature . 13 (318): 88–89. Bibcode :1875Natur..13...88T . doi :10.1038/013088a0 .
^ "Tomb of Dr. Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm" . NHM Images . London: Natural History Museum. Asset 9852.
^ "Catalogue Details: Letter from Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm to C. T. von Siebold, 1875" . State Library of New South Wales. Call Number MLMSS 7686. Retrieved 15 March 2023 .
^ "Marine Gazetteer Placedetails - Suhm Plain" . April 22, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2023 .
^ Stein, Glenn M. (22 March 2009). Bossard, David C. (ed.). "The Challenger Medal Roll (1895)" . Library of 19th Century Science .
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