Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim

Johann Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim (1771 to 1853) was a Saxon-born physician and naturalist who spent the second half of his life in Russia. He studied medicine at Leipzig, taking medical and philosophical doctorates in 1797 and 1798, and learned comparative anatomy in Paris from Georges Cuvier, whose lectures he translated into German. He was professor of natural history at Mainz from 1798, then from 1804 professor of natural history and director of the natural history museum at the University of Moscow. In 1805 he founded the Moscow Society of Naturalists. He worked mainly on zoology and palaeontology, including the multivolume Entomographia Imperii Rossici, was called the Cuvier of Russia, and also served as president of the Moscow Medical and Surgical Academy.