Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches
Forster, (Johann) Georg Adam (Germany
1754-1794)
geography, natural history
from Wikipedia.org |
Georg Forster and his father Johann Reinhold are most celebrated for their roles
as naturalists in the second Captain James Cook voyage circumnavigating
the world. Upon returning the Forsters published both scientific and popular
accounts of their experience, culminating in Georg's A Voyage Round
the World in 1777, a work which made a marked impression on the young
Alexander von Humboldt. Forster's life was relatively short, but his impact
considerable: brilliant, well- and broadly-trained (mostly by his father)
and in frequent contact with many of the leading minds of the Europe of
his time, his writings did much to open the eyes of his countrymen to
the potential benefits of study of natural history, and the lure of geographical
places. |
Life Chronology
--born in Nassenhuben, near Danzig, Polish Prussia,
on 27 November 1754.
--1765-1766: travels to the Volga steppes with
his father
--1766: emigrates to England with his father
--1767: publishes (at the age of twelve) a translation
of a history of Russia by Lomonosov
--1772-1775: serves as translator, artist, and
scientific assistant on James Cook's second global voyage
--1777: publishes A Voyage Round the World;
elected to the Royal Society
--1778: leaves England for Germany
--1779-1784: professor of natural history at
the Collegium Carolinium in Kassel
--1780: admitted to the German Academy of Naturalists
Leopoldina
--1784-1787: professor of natural history, University
of Vilna
--1786: publishes his M.D. dissertation (De plantis exculentis insularum
Oceani Australis commentatio botanica) and Florulae
insularum Australium prodromus
--1787: publishes his Fasciculus plantarum
Magellanicarum / Plantae Atlanticae
--1788-1792: university librarian at the
University of Mainz
--1790: travels through the Netherlands, England
and France with Alexander von Humboldt
--1791-1794: publishes his Ansichten
vom Niederrhein, including an account of his trip with Humboldt
--1793: elected deputy for Mainz to French Republic
national convention in Paris
--dies at Paris, France, on 10 January 1794.
For Additional
Information, See:
--Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Vol. 20 (2004).
--Dictionary of Scientific Biography,
Vol. 5 (1972)
--Georg Forster (1972).
--Journal of Modern
History, Vol. 41(1) (1969): 1-16.
--Modern Language Review, Vol. 51(1) (1956): 42-48.
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Copyright 2005 by Charles H. Smith. All rights
reserved.
http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/FORS1754.htm
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