Hermann Fol, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Hermann Fol

Swiss zoologist (1845-1892)

Date of Birth: 23-Jul-1845

Place of Birth: Saint-Mandé, Île-de-France, France

Date of Death: 13-Mar-1892

Profession: zoologist

Nationality: Switzerland

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Hermann Fol (23 July 1845, Saint-Mandé – 13 March 1892) was a Swiss zoologist and the father of modern cytology. After studying medicine and zoology with Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) at the University of Jena where he was a pupil of François Jules Pictet de la Rive (1809–1872) and René-Édouard Claparède (1832-1871), he accompanied Haeckel on a prolonged scientific journey (1866 and 1867) around the coasts of West Africa and of the Canary Islands.
On his return to Europe he undertook medical studies in Heidelberg and completed them by obtaining his diploma in 1869 in Zurich and Berlin.
In 1871 he studied planktonic fauna in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the recommendation of Carl Vogt (1817–1895).
In 1878, he obtained a post of professor at the University of Geneva where in the following year, he observed the penetration of a spermatozoon into an egg becoming thus a pioneer of the microscopic studies of fertilisation and cellular division.
In 1886, he resigned from his post in Geneva to devote himself entirely to his research in Villefranche-sur-Mer where, in 1880, he had established a small marine laboratory with Jules Henri Barrois (1852–1943).
Then, financially aided by the French government to carry out a study of distribution of sponges on the Tunisian and Greek coasts, he departed Le Havre on his new yacht, l' Aster on March 13, 1892, accompanied by several team members.
After a stopover in Bénodet, the yacht disappeared at sea, and Fol was never seen again.