Vladimir Köppen

Wladimir Köppen
1921, photo by Friedrich Becks
Born	25 September 1846 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	22 June 1940(1940-06-22) (aged 93) Graz, Germany
Nationality	Russian/German
Fields	Geography, Meteorology, Climatology, Botany
Institutions	University of Heidelberg University of Leipzig
Alma mater	University of Saint Petersburg
Known for	Köppen climate classification system

Wladimir Peter Köppen (Russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Кёппен, Vladimir Petrovich Kyoppen; 7 October 1846 – 22 June 1940) was a Russian-German geographer, meteorologist, climatologist and botanist. After studies in St. Petersburg, he spent the bulk of his life and professional career in Germany and Austria. His most notable contribution to science was the development of the Köppen climate classification system, which, with some modifications, is still commonly used. Köppen made significant contributions to several branches of science.

Wladimir Koppen was born in St. Peterburg, Russia and lived there until he was 20 years old. He died in Graz, Austria. Köppen's grandfather was one of several doctors invited to Russia by Empress Catherine II to improve sanitation, and was later personal physician to the tsar. His father, Pyotr Köppen, was a noted geographer, historian and ethnographer of ancient Russian cultures, and an important contributor to intellectual exchanges between western European slavists and Russian scientists. He attended secondary school in Simferopol, Crimea and began his studies of botany in 1864 at the University of St. Petersburg.

He frequently travelled to his family's estate on the Crimean coast from St. Petersburg and to and from Simferopol, in the interior of the peninsula. The floral and geographical diversity of the Crimean peninsula, as well as the starker geographical transitions between the capital and his home, did much to awaken an interest in the relationship between climate and the natural world. In 1867, he transferred to the University of Heidelberg and defended his doctorate dissertation on the effects of temperature on plant growth at the University of Leipzig in 1870. He served in the ambulance corps in the Franco-Prussian War and later worked at the Central Physical Observatory in St. Petersburg.