Henry Van Peters Wilson (1863–1939) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, Department of Biology. In 1907 he demonstrated that silicate sponges have the ability to re-form into functional creatures after the individual cells have been dissociated from one another by mechanical means (sieving through a fine silk mesh).Migration and Rearrangement of Cells Within Sponges,

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1863 births 1939 deaths American biologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences {{Biologist-stub