Louis Agassiz
Born May 28, 1807
Motier-en-Vuly, Switzerland
Died December 14, 1873
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Naturalist and teacher
"The book of Nature is always open…. Strive to interpret what really exists."
Louis Agassiz (pronounced AG-uh-see) was the leading naturalist of the nineteenth century, advancing the study of nature through scientific observation. Born in Switzerland, he emigrated to the United States in middle age after his reputation was already well established. Agassiz was famed for his studies of glaciers, the moving rivers of ice that led Agassiz to formulate the notion of an "Ice Age" in the distant past. As a professor at Harvard University, Agassiz taught generations of students engaged in the scientific study of nature, which he regarded as evidence of God. On that basis, he led opposition to the new theory of evolution brought forth by English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882).
Youth in Switzerland
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born into a comfortably well-off family in Switzerland. His father was a minister, and the family was deeply religious. Young Agassiz developed a reverence for the natural world as God's creation that he retained all his life. Agassiz's parents thought he should study medicine and become a doctor, and he was willing to follow this course.
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