Carl Linnaeus

Who is Carl Linnaeus?

Carl Linnaeus, later ennobled as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician born in Råshult, Småland. He is celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy for devising the system of binomial nomenclature, in which every species is given a two-part Latin name identifying its genus and species. Educated at Lund and Uppsala, he undertook expeditions to Lapland and other regions, cataloguing plants and animals in unprecedented detail. His landmark work Systema Naturae, first published in 1735 and expanded across many editions, laid out a hierarchical classification of the natural world. He served as professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala University, where he inspired a generation of students, some of whom travelled the globe collecting specimens. His methods transformed biology into a systematic science and remain foundational today.

Sources: Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae (1735) · Carl Linnaeus, Species Plantarum (1753)