Adolf Ernst
| Adolf Ernst | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
6 October 1832 Przemkow |
| Died | 12 August 1899 (aged 66) Caracas |
| Residence | Venezuela |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Central University of Venezuela |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Ernst |
Adolf Ernst (Primkenau, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, (today Przemków, Poland) October 6, 1832 - Caracas, Venezuela, August 12, 1899) was a Prussian-born scientist. Ernst settled in Venezuela in 1861, where he taught at the Central University of Venezuela. He became the most important scientist in the country during the second half of the 19th century and was a key figure in the creation of the Museum of Natural Science and the National Library of Venezuela, where he also served as its director.
He developed important scientific works in this country. Also, as a university professor, he had a marked influence on generations of scientists from the second half of the nineteenth century in Venezuela.
He is regarded as the founder of the Venezuelan positivist school.
His parents were Adolf Ernst and Catalina Bischoff. He studied high school in his hometown, and then enrolled at the University of Berlin where he studied natural sciences, pedagogy and modern languages. At this German institution, he met two children of the Venezuelan general Judas Tadeo Piñango, with whom he struck up a warm friendship, who encouraged him to travel to Venezuela. On December 2, 1861, he came to Venezuela from Hamburg. on August 5, 1864, he married Enriqueta Tresselt with whom he had five children.
In May 1867, now completely adapted to the Venezuelan life, he founded the Society of Physical and Natural Sciences of Caracas and later the National Museum in 1874. In 1876, he became the director of the National Library, in which he gave institution a big boost. During the government of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, he participated in the international exhibitions organization in Vienna (1873), Bremen (1874), Santiago de Chile and Philadelphia (1876). In 1874, at the request of the President, he organized the chair of Natural History at the Central University of Venezuela, where he spread the Lamarck's and Charles Darwin's "natural selection" theories, which were fundamental in Zoology and Botany.
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