Alexander von Humboldt

Explored the Americas in a landmark scientific expedition, founded fields including biogeography, and wrote enormously popular works such as Cosmos that shaped science and inspired generations of explorers and writers.

Discoveries

Mapped how plants and climate vary with altitude and geography, founding biogeography.
Studied the geomagnetism, geology and peoples of the Americas on his expedition.

Major Works

Cosmos
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America
Views of Nature

Impact Analysis

Humboldt united the sciences into a single vision of nature as an interconnected whole, an idea that shaped ecology, and his writings made science a popular passion.

Historical influence score: 81/100