Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a Prussian naturalist and explorer. Between 1799 and 1804 he traveled with Aimé Bonpland through Venezuela, Cuba, the Andes and Mexico, descending the Orinoco, climbing to a record height on Chimborazo and measuring everything from magnetic fields to the temperature of the ocean current that bears his name. The thirty volumes of his Personal Narrative and scientific results, his essays Views of Nature (1808) and his synthesis Kosmos (1845–62) made him the most famous scientist in Europe and the founder of physical geography and biogeography. Darwin, Bolívar and Goethe all acknowledged his influence. He died in Berlin at eighty-nine.