Origins & Early Life

Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli (26 or 27 March 1817 – 10 May 1891) was a Swiss botanist. He studied cell division and pollination but became known as the man who discouraged Gregor Mendel from further work on genetics. He rejected natural selection as a mechanism of evolution, favouring orthogenesis, though the term was only coined in 1893, two years after his death, driven by a supposed "inner perfecting principle". Carl Nägeli was born the son of a physician in Kilchberg near Zürich.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He began studying medicine at the University of Zürich in 1836, but soon switched to botany, studying among others under naturalists Lorenz Oken and Oswald Heer. From 1839, he studied at the University of Geneva under Swiss botanist A. P. de Candolle. In 1840, he received his doctorate in Zürich with a dissertation on the Cirsium species of Switzerland.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

From 1842 Nägeli worked with German botanist Matthias Schleiden at the University of Jena. After Schleiden directed his attention to the microscopic study of plants, he focused his research on that area. After first becoming Privatdozent, and in 1849 extraordinary professor (a position somewhere between that of an associate professor and a full professor...

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