Eduard Strasburger


Eduard Adolf Strasburger was a Polish-German professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants.

Life

Eduard Strasburger was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, the son of Anna Karoline and Eduard Gottlieb Strasburger. In 1870, he married Alexandra Julia Wertheim, they had two children: Anna and Julius.
Strasburger studied biological sciences in Paris, Bonn and Jena, receiving a PhD in 1866 after working with Nathanael Pringsheim. In 1868 he taught at the University of Warsaw. In 1869 he was appointed professor of botany at the University of Jena. From 1881 he was head of the Botanisches Institut at the University of Bonn.
Strasburger died in Bonn, Germany.

Achievements

Strasburge was a founder of the famous Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen, which first appeared in 1894. He was the first to provide an accurate description of the embryonic sac in gymnosperms and angiosperms, along with demonstrating double-fertilization in angiosperms. He came up with one of the modern laws of plant cytology: "New cell nuclei can only arise from the division of other nuclei." and originated the terms cytoplasm and nucleoplasm.
Together with Walther Flemming and Edouard van Beneden, he elucidated chromosome distribution during cell division. His work on the upward movement of tree sap proved that the process was physical and not physiological.

Awards

In 1886 Strasburger was elected an honorary member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1905, as well as the Linnean Society of London's even more prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1908, awarded only once every 50 years.

Family

Strasburger was married to the pianist Alexandra Julie Wertheim and aunt of the pianist Juliusz Wertheim
; they had three children. His son was the internist Julius Strasburger, a grandson was the ancient historian Hermann Strasburger.

Works

  • On Cell Formation and Cell Division, 1876 – a book in which he set forth the basic principles of mitosis.
  • Ueber das Verhalten des Pollens und die Befruchtungsvorgänge bei den Gymnospermen: Schwärmsporen, Gameten, pflanzliche Spermatozoiden und das Wesen der Befruchtung. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena, 1892.
  • Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen, 1st ed., 1894;, digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf;, by ULB Düsseldorf;, by ULB Düsseldorf;, available at BHL; 33rd ed., 1991; 36th ed. 2008. Translated to English, Estonian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish. A complete list of editions and translations up to 1994 is given in Finke et al. A Textbook of botany,, English translation of the 2nd German ed., available at BHL. Macmillan, London.
  • Das kleine botanische Practicum für Anfänger : Anleitung zum Selbststudium der mikroskopischen Botanik und Einführung in die mikroskopische Technik,, digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf.