Eveline du Bois-Reymond Marcus (6 October 1901 – 31 January 1990) was a German

zoologist 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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

and

drawer A drawer is a box-shaped container inside a piece of furniture that can be pulled out horizontally to access its contents. Drawers are built into numerous types of furniture, including cabinets, chests of drawers (bureaus), desks, and the ...

Life

Eveline Du Bois-Reymond was the youngest daughter of Rene and Frieda du Bois-Reymond, as well as a granddaughter of physiologist

Emil Du Bois-Reymond Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond (7 November 181826 December 1896) was a German physician and physiologist, the co-discoverer of nerve action potential, and the developer of experimental electrophysiology. Life Du Bois-Reymond was born in Berlin a ...

. Her father was also a professor of physiology at

Berlin University 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 ...

. Her interest in zoology started when she was still a young girl and used to watch small animals in her father's microscope.Corrêa, D.D. (1991) Dr Eveline du Bois-Reymond Marcus. ''Hydrobiologia'', 227: xxiii-xxvi. From 1923 to 1924, she attended zoology courses at the

, but did not conclude them because she met a professor of zoology, Ernst Marcus and married him. Together, they started a strong collaboration in zoology, including the study of several invertebrate groups, such as protozoans, ctenophores, flatworms,

nemertine Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many h ...

s, annelids,

tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbä ...

onychophoran Onychophora (from grc, ονυχής, , "claws"; and , , "to carry"), commonly known as velvet worms (due to their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, '' Peripatus ...

s, bryozoans, gastropods, and pycnogonids. She was not listed as an author in their first works together in order to justify Marcus' full-time position as a professor and because she never accepted a remunerated job. In 1936, due to the rise of

Nazism 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) i ...

in Germany, Marcus was dismissed from his job and the couple moved to

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, where Marcus had been invited to teach at the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the couple could not travel to the sea coast because of their German origin. As a result, they dedicated their time to the study of freshwater and land invertebrates, especially

turbellarian The Turbellaria are one of the traditional sub-divisions of the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms), and include all the sub-groups that are not exclusively parasitic. There are about 4,500 species, which range from to large freshwater forms more ...

s. After her husband's death in 1968, Du Bois-Reymond Marcus continued their studies, publishing about 30 papers, mostly on opisthobranch molluscs. In 1973, she was elected an Honorary Member of the Brazilian Malacological Society and in 1979 of the Malacological Society of London. She was also awarded with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of São Paulo in 1976 and by the

University of Marseille Aix-Marseille University (AMU; french: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as ''Université d'Aix-Marseille'') is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II o ...

in 1988. She died on 31 January 1990 in São Paulo, Brazil, aged 88.

Bibliography

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References

20th-century German zoologists University of São Paulo faculty Emigrants from Nazi Germany 1901 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Brazilian zoologists German emigrants to Brazil {{Germany-zoologist-stub