Pranciškus Baltrus Šivickis (born September 30, 1882, in the

Raseiniai Raseiniai (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Raseinē'') is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the A1 highway (Lithuania), Kaunas–Klaipėda highway. History Grand ...

region of central Lithuania—died October 12, 1968) was a Lithuanian zoologist who moved to the United States where he completed his education. He became a professor at the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

(Manila) before returning to Lithuania to become a professor at

Kaunas University of Technology The Kaunas University of Technology (abbreviated as KTU, ) is a public university, public research university located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Established in 1922, KTU has been seen as one of Lithuania's top science education centers. In 2021, KTU ...

Early life

Šivickis was born in a village in

Šiluva Šiluva is a small town of less than 700 inhabitants in Lithuania. It is located in the Regions of Lithuania, region of Samogitia. It is List of Catholic pilgrimage sites in Lithuania, a major site of Catholic pilgrimage in Lithuania. History � ...

parish in the Raseiniai region of central Lithuania. He finished three years of schooling at a Russian school in Šiluva in 1900 and started work on his father's farm. He was interested in Lithuanian folk traditions and was involved as a patriot in revolutionary activities of 1905. Hearing that he was on a list of people that the Tsarist government planned to arrest, he moved to the United States in 1906. There he took various jobs and enrolled at evening classes, studying over the next few years at seven different US universities. By 1920 he had graduated from the Natural Sciences Department of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and two years later received his doctorate, his

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

being on the subject of the regeneration of

flatworms Platyhelminthes (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") is a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates commonly called ...

. He then took a post as Professor of Zoology at the University of the Philippines in Manila. Here he became a respected member of the scientific community known for his research, teaching work and organisational skills. His ambition however was to return to his native land and advance the field of Zoology in Lithuania.

Return to Lithuania

Šivickis returned to Lithuania in 1928 and joined the faculty at the Zoology and Comparative Anatomy Department of the University of Lithuania. He has been described as being the founder of the "Lithuanian school of ecological faunistic studies of invertebrates". Later he also took up a post as professor and head of the Department of Histology and Embryology at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

. He and the students he inspired published many scientific papers on soil, aquatic and parasitic invertebrates and other insects. He was a member of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...

and in 1952 he started the first

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in questio ...

laboratory in the country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sivickis, Pranciskus Baltrus 1882 births 1968 deaths People from Raseiniai District Municipality People from Rossiyensky Uyezd Lithuanian zoologists 20th-century zoologists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States University of Chicago alumni Academic staff of the University of the Philippines Academic staff of the Kaunas University of Technology Academicians of the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences