Alexander Agassiz

Alexander Agassiz (born December 17, 1835, Neuchâtel, Switzerland—died March 27, 1910, at sea) was a marine zoologist, oceanographer, and mining engineer who made important contributions to systematic zoology, to the knowledge of ocean beds, and to the development of a major copper mine.

Son of the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, he joined his father in 1849 in the U.S., where he studied engineering and zoology at Harvard University. His early research on echinoderms (e.g., starfish) resulted in his most significant work in the area of systematic zoology, the Revision of the Echini (1872–74).

From 1866 to 1869 Agassiz was the superintendent of a copper mine at Calumet, Michigan, near Lake Superior. He eventually became president of the mine, retaining that position until his death, by which time he had changed an initially unprofitable operation into the world’s foremost copper mine. Agassiz instituted modern machinery and safety devices, pension and accident funds for miners, and sanitary measures for surrounding communities. He donated large sums to the Harvard Museum, of which he was curator from 1874 to 1885, and to other institutions engaged in advancing the study of biology.

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Agassiz opened a private biological laboratory at Newport, Rhode Island, soon after closing his father’s experimental school of biology on Penikese Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, following the death of Louis Agassiz (1873). On a trip along the west coast of South America (1875), he discovered a coral reef 3,000 feet above sea level, an observation that appeared to contradict Charles Darwin’s theory of coral reef formation, in which he postulated a rate of coral formation identical with the rise of sea level. He continued his marine and coral reef studies for more than 25 years, making expeditions in various waters, including the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.