Alexander Pagenstecher (zoologist)

rdf:langString Alexander Pagenstecher (zoologist)

rdf:langString Heinrich Alexander Pagenstecher (18 March 1825, Elberfeld – 4 January 1889, Hamburg) was a German zoologist. He studied medicine at the universities of Göttingen, Heidelberg and Berlin and furthered his education in Paris. Following graduation, he worked as a general practitioner in his hometown of Elberfeld (1847), as a spa doctor in Salzbrunn (1848–49) and as a physician in Barmen (1849). In 1856 he obtained his habilitation for obstetrics at the University of Heidelberg. Because of a serious injury to two of his fingers, he considered himself unfit for surgery and obstetrics, and subsequently shifted his attention from medicine to zoology. In 1863 he was named an associate professor of zoology and paleontology as well as director of the zoological institute at Heidelberg, where in 1866, he attained a full professorship. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Natural History Museum in Hamburg. The herpetological species Pseudemoia pagenstecheri (southern grass tussock skink) is named in his honor.