Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf (1815–1894)

Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf was a Russian zoologist, researcher and biogeographer. By origin he was of the Baltic Germans. He was born in St. Petersburg, where received his early education. In 1837 he received a medical degree in Tartu University, and undertook further studies in Berlin, Erlangen, Vienna and Breslau. In 1839 he became an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Kiev.

In 1839 he traveled to the Kola Peninsula and from 1843 to 1845 to the Taimyr Peninsula. Soon Alexander Fedorovich was commissioned by the St.Petersburg Academy of Sciences to research the north and east of Siberia. In 1848-75 he traveled there. During this expedition he had to research the effects of permafrost on the spread of animals and plants. He also wrote a book about the bird migration in Russia, and a monograph on molluscs. His Siberian journey led to the establishment of the Russian Geographical Society.