Georg Wilhelm Steller

Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709 to 1746) was a German-born naturalist and explorer who worked in biology, zoology and ethnography. Born in Windsheim near Nuremberg, he studied at the University of Wittenberg, turned from theology and medicine to the natural sciences, and travelled to Russia as a physician, arriving in November 1734. He joined the Russian Academy of Sciences as a physician and was chosen to accompany Bering on the voyage between Siberia and North America, in the Great Northern Expedition. Steller kept detailed records of the plants, animals and peoples he met and of ocean currents, and he documented many species new to Western science, among them Steller's sea cow and Steller's sea eagle. His exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Commander Islands greatly widened knowledge of the biodiversity of the North Pacific, and his journals, published by Peter Simon Pallas, were used by later explorers including Captain Cook.