Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz

Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz (1793 to 1831) was a Baltic German physician, anatomist and naturalist from Dorpat in the Russian Empire. He completed his medical doctorate at the University of Dorpat in 1815 and joined it in 1819 as an associate professor of medicine and prosector, later directing its zoological cabinet and, from 1830, holding the full chair of anatomy and forensic medicine. He sailed twice around the world under Otto von Kotzebue, in 1815 to 1818 and 1823 to 1826, serving as ship's doctor and naturalist. On the first voyage he and Adelbert von Chamisso found the alternation of generations in salps, the first sure case in animals, and Eschscholtz also recognised that coral growth was not limited to the surface layer. He died young, leaving many collected species, from California and Alaska among other places, to be described by others.