Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg was a German naturalist, zoologist, botanist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist. He was one of the most productive and renowned scientists of his time and a friend of the famous explorer Alexander von Humboldt. As a professor of medicine at the University of Berlin he was primarily interested in biology, naturalist studies and microscopy. His studies on micro-organisms led him to discover a number of protozoa, including the organisms giving the colour of the Red Sea, and he was among the first to suggest the separation of microscopic organisms into a grouping separate from the plants and animals. He wrote a major book on the life of microbes which included his own illustrations, 'Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen. Ein Blick in das tiefere organische Leben der Natur'. He was also a pioneer of micropaleontology.