Karl Ernst von Baer

Karl Ernst von Baer was born on 28 February 1792 in the Baltic provinces, a German-speaking naturalist who would work under the Russian Empire for most of his career. In 1827 he identified the mammalian ovum, the breakthrough that established embryology as a field. He went on to range across disciplines — biology, geology, meteorology, geography — and became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He co-founded the Russian Geographical Society and served as the first president of the Russian Entomological Society. He died on 28 November 1876, one of the most distinguished scientists the B…