Erich Dagobert von Drygalski | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Picturedc. 1900–1920. | |
| Born | February 9, 1865 (1865-02-09) |
| Died | January 10, 1949 (1949-01-11) (aged 83) |
| Occupation(s) | Geographer,Geophysicist, and polar scientist. |
Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (German:[ˈeːʁɪçˈdaːɡobɛʁtfɔndʁyˈɡalski]; February 9, 1865 – January 10, 1949) was a Germangeographer,geophysicist and polar scientist, born inKönigsberg,East Prussia.
Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studiedmathematics andnatural science at theUniversity of Königsberg,Bonn,Berlin andLeipzig. He graduated with a doctorate thesis about ice shields in Nordic areas. Between 1888 and 1891, he was an assistant at theGeodetic Institute and the Central Office of International Geodetics in Berlin.
Drygalski led two expeditions between 1891 and 1893, which were supplied by the Society forGeoscience of Berlin. One expedition wintered during the winter between 1892 and 1893 in WesternGreenland. Hehabilitated 1889 for geography and geophysics with the collected scientific evidence. In 1898, Drygalski becameassociate professor and 1899 extraordinary professor forgeography andgeophysics in Berlin.
Drygalski led the first GermanSouth Polar expedition with the shipGauss to explore the unknown area ofAntarctica lying south of theKerguelen Islands. The expedition started fromKiel in the summer of 1901. A small party of the expedition was also stationed on the Kerguelen Islands, while the main party proceeded further south. Drygalski also paid a brief call toHeard Island and provided the first comprehensive scientific information on the island's geology, flora and fauna. Despite being trapped by ice for nearly fourteen months until February 1903, the expedition discovered new territory inAntarctica, theKaiser Wilhelm II Land with theGaussberg. The expedition arrived back in Kiel in November 1903. Subsequently, Drygalski wrote the narrative of the expedition and edited the voluminous scientific data. Between 1905 and 1931, he published twentyvolumes and twoatlases documenting the expedition and was awarded the 1933Royal Geographical Society'sPatron's Medal.[1]
From October 1906 until his retirement, Drygalski was a professor inMunich, where he also presided the Geographic Institute, founded by him, until his death. In 1910, he also took part in CountFerdinand von Zeppelin's expedition toSpitsbergen and participated in other expeditions toNorth America and northeasternAsia. He died in 1949 in Munich.
Drygalski Island,Drygalski Fjord in South Georgia, and an avenue in the southern part of Munich were named after him, as is the craterDrygalski on the Moon. Two glaciers, includingDrygalski Glacier (Antarctica) andDrygalski Glacier (Tanzania) on the slopes ofMount Kilimanjaro are also named for him. An archive in theLudwig Maximilians University remembers his pioneering efforts. He also has a South African spider named after him,Araneus drygalskii (Strand, 1909), based on material collected on the Gauss expedition.
