Karl Asmund Rudolphi (14 July 1771 – 29 November 1832) was a Swedish-born German naturalist, who is credited with being the "father of helminthology".

Life

Rudolphi was born in Stockholm to German parents. He was awarded his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1793 and his

medical doctorate Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

in 1794 from the University of Greifswald, where he was appointed Professor of Anatomy. He worked widely across the fields of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

. He investigated the anatomy of

nerve A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons) in the peripheral nervous system. A nerve transmits electrical impulses. It is the basic unit of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the e ...

s, carried out studies of plant growth and was an early champion of the view that the cell is the basic structural unit of plants. In 1804, Karl Rudolphi, along with J.H.F. Link were awarded the prize for "solving the problem of the nature of cells" by the Königliche Societät der Wissenschaft (Royal Society of Science), Göttingen, for proving that cells had independent rather than common walls. His first great publication was a study of parasitic worms, the ''Enterozoorum Sive Vermium Intestinalium Historia Naturalis''. This is the first publication to describe the '' Nematoda''. His second, the ''"Synopsis cui accedunt mantissima duplex et indices locupletissima"'' was the first work to detail the life cycle of important nematode parasites of humans, such as ''

Ascaris lumbricoides ''Ascaris lumbricoides'' is a large parasitic worm that causes ascariasis in humans. A Nematoda, roundworm of genus ''Ascaris'', it is the most common parasitic worm in humans. An estimated one-sixth of the human population is at some point infe ...

''. In 1810 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

, a position he held until his death. He served two terms as rector of the University, and founded the , Berlin Zootomical Museum (later the Museum für Naturkunde). In 1816, he was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. In 1821, Rudolphi published his ''"Grundriss der Physiologie"'', where he argued that the human genus should be divided into

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, not into races. His work therefore predates "scientific" racism of the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

period in German and Scandinavian countries. Rudolphi died in Berlin in 1832, and was succeeded in his position at the University of Berlin by his greatest student, Johannes Müller. Rudolphi is remembered in numerous species names such as the

sei whale The sei whale ( , ; ''Balaenoptera borealis'') is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical ...

, known in older literature as "Rudolphi's Whale" (Turner 1882) or "Rudolphi's rorqual" (e.g. Cocks 1886; Collett 1886; Haldane 1906, 1909; Thompson 1919). He is also commemorated by the German Parasitological Society, who award the

Rudolphi Medal Karl Asmund Rudolphi (14 July 1771 – 29 November 1832) was a Swedish-born German naturalist, who is credited with being the "father of helminthology". Life Rudolphi was born in Stockholm to German parents. He was awarded his PhD in 1793 an ...

for scientific excellence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudolphi, Karl 1771 births 1832 deaths 19th-century German biologists German parasitologists University of Greifswald alumni University of Greifswald faculty Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences German people of Swedish descent