Charles Wyville Thomson

Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (born March 5, 1830 in Bonsyde, West Lothian , † March 10, 1882 ibid) was professor of zoology.

Life

Thomson was born on his family's ancestral home in Scotland and was a student at Merchiston Castle School . He studied at the University of Edinburgh . He worked first as a lecturer in botany at King's College in Aberdeen , then as a professor of natural history at Queen's College in Cork (1853-1854) and finally as a professor of mineralogy and geology at Queen's College in Belfast (1854-1868).

With the British naturalist and physiologist William Benjamin Carpenter , Thomson made the first voyages to research the deep-sea fauna in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean on the gunboat Lightning in 1868 and on the guard ship Porcupine in 1869 . Thomson worked with Michael Sars , a Norwegian biologist who collected deep-sea samples off the Lofoten Islands.

In 1855 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1870 he got the Regius Chair of Natural History in Edinburgh.

From 1872 to 1876 Thomson led the Challenger Expedition and received the knighthood and the great gold medal of the Royal Society from Queen Victoria . The Wyville-Thomson Ridge is named after him, a ridge between Scotland and the Faroe Islands . In 1875 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Charles Wyville Thomson died on March 10, 1882 at his country estate in Bonsyde. A window in St. Michael's Parish Church in Linlithgow commemorates him.

Works

The Depths of the Sea. An Account of the General Results of the Dredging Cruises of HMSS. 'Porcupine' and 'Lightning' during the Summers of 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific direction of Dr. Carpenter, FRS, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, FRS, and Dr. Wyville Thomson, FRS . Macmillan, London 1873.

literature

Report on the expeditions on the Porcupine and Lightning between 1868 and 1870. archive.org
Thomson, Sir Charles Wyville . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 26 : Submarine Mines - Tom-Tom . London 1911, p. 871 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Individual evidence

↑ Official website of the Merchiston Castle School : HISTORY, TRADITION AND ETHOS
^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 15, 2020 .
↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 240.

personal data
SURNAME	Thomson, Charles Wyville
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish zoologist and university professor, professor of zoology
DATE OF BIRTH	March 5, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bonsyde, West Lothian
DATE OF DEATH	March 10, 1882
Place of death	Bonsyde, West Lothian

[1] Official website of the Merchiston Castle School : HISTORY, TRADITION AND ETHOS

[2] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 15, 2020 .

[3] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 240.