Agassiz, Alexander, 1835-1910

Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz was born on December 17, 1835, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

He was an American scientist and engineer. In 1849, he immigrated to the United States with his father Louis Agassiz, a zoologist, geologist, and glaciologist. In 1857, he received the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. In 1859, he became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey in California where he became a specialist in marine ichthyology. In 1862, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1866, he worked as an assistant in zoology in the Museum of Natural History at Harvard University. He later became President of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company based in Calumet, Michigan. He greatly contributed to the success of the copper mining operations, donating the US $500,000 to Harvard for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and other purposes. In 1875, he surveyed Lake Titicaca, Peru, and examined the copper mines of Peru and Chile. In 1896, he visited Fiji and Queensland and inspected the Great Barrier Reef, publishing a paper on the subject in 1898. In 1865, he published with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his stepmother, “Seaside Studies in Natural History”. In 1871, they also published “Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay”. In 1902, he received the German Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts. He also served as a president of the National Academy of Sciences, which since 1913 has awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal in his memory.

Alexander Agassiz is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Anolis agassizi.

He died on March 27, 1910, at sea.