1807-1873

Swiss geologist and naturalist who first popularized the idea of an ice age. Agassiz was a renowned naturalist who, as a professor of natural history at Neuchâtel, determined that glaciers had once covered Europe. In 1847 he moved to the United States to become a professor at Harvard University. While there he discovered evidence that the Ice Age had affected North America too. His ice age theories caught the public fancy. A committed Creationist, Agassiz never accepted the evolution of species, despite his acceptance of an ancient Earth.