German physician and geologist

Georgius Agricola was born Georg Bauer, but later Latinized his name to Georgius Agricola, as was the custom of the time. (The German word bauer and the Latin word agricola both mean farmer.) His research and publications on a wide range of geologic topics, including mineralogy, paleontology, stratigraphy, mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, and fossils have led some biographers to describe him as the forefather of geology or one or more of its many branches.

After earning a medical degree in Italy, Agricola was appointed physician in the town of Joachimstahl in Bohemia (now Jachymov, Czechoslovakia). It was in this important mining center that he began some of his earliest research into mining and a lifelong love of geologic studies. When he later relocated to the mining center of Chemnitz (now in modern day Germany) he continued a remarkably systematic and meticulous...