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 Baltic German community ever produced.