Hans Hermann Behr

Hans Hermann Behr was a German-American doctor, entomologist and botanist, born in Köthen on 18 August 1818 and died in San Francisco on 6 March 1904. He began studying medicine in 1837, first at the university in Halle-Wittenberg and then in Berlin, where he graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1843; on his eightieth birthday in 1898 Berlin renewed his degree at the recommendation of Rudolf Virchow. Encouraged by Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Ritter, he sailed for Australia in 1844 to study botany and entomology, and he was the first person to study the flora of many parts of South Australia systematically. On his return in 1848 he travelled as ship's surgeon to Adelaide. At his death a San Francisco newspaper called him an authority of world-wide prominence in many branches of science.