Agassiz << AG uh see >> Louis (1807-1873), was a Swiss-born naturalist who studied many kinds of animals in Europe and America. He became noted for his work on both modern and fossil forms of fishes. He established a zoological laboratory on an island in Buzzards Bay off the coast of Massachusetts to provide a place to study animals in their natural surroundings. Agassiz believed that animal species do not change, and he criticized the theory of evolution developed by the British naturalist Charles Darwin. As a geologist, Agassiz showed that glaciers once covered large areas of the earth.
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born on May 28, 1807, in Motier-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. Agassiz came to the United States in 1846, and in 1848 he became a professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University (see Geology (Experimental geology) ). He died on Dec. 14, 1873.
