Ber K.M., (1792-1876), naturalist

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
BER Karl Maximovich (1792-1876), naturalist, Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1828, Honorary Member since 1862). Graduated from Derpt University (1814). From 1817, worked at Koenigsberg University. Invited to St. Petersburg in 1829, but soon left for family reasons and went to Koenigsberg in 1830. In 1834, Ber returned to St. Petersburg. Worked at the Medical Surgical Academy (1841-52) and at the Library of the Academy of Science, directing its Second Foreign Department (today the Ber Collection). Returned to Derpt (today Tartu) after retiring in 1867. Ber is credited as the founder of embryology, and put forth many scientific discoveries in this sphere. Took part in several geographical expeditions, and initiated the establishment of the Russian Geographic Society and the Russian Entomological Society (President in 1860-1861). A cape on Novaya Zemlya and an island in the Taimyr Gulf have been named after Ber. In 1886, a model of Derpt's monument to Ber (sculptor A.M. Opekushin) was placed in the building of the Zoological Institute of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences; an original made from the same monument was placed in the building of the Library of the Academy of Science in 1925. In 1841-67, Ber lived in the main building of the Academy of Sciences.

References: Райков Б. Е. Карл Бэр, его жизнь и труды. М.; Л., 1961; Варламов В. Ф. Карл Бэр - испытатель природы. М., 1988.

O. N. Ansberg. Ber Karl Maximovich
Opekushin Alexander Mikhailovich
Варламов В. Ф. Карл Бэр - испытатель природы. М., 1988
Райков Б. Е. Карл Бэр, его жизнь и труды. М.; Л., 1961 Russian Academy of Sciences
Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Geographical Society
Russian Entomological Society
Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences