Stepan Kutorga
Stepan Semyonovich Kutorga was a Russian naturalist, zoologist and mineralogist who worked as a professor at the Saint [Petersburg Imperial University].
Kutorga was born in Mstislav, Mogilev Governorate, son of Semyon Martynovich Kutorga, and received his early education at home. He went to the The Second [Saint Petersburg Gymnasium|Saint Petersburg Provincial Gymnasium] and later to the. After graduating in 1827 he joined the Saint Petersburg University from where he was sent to the Imperial University of Dorpat. He studied medicine and received a doctor of medicine degree in 1832 with a dissertation "De organis vocis psittaci erytaci" . In 1833 he obtained the chair of zoology at Saint Petersburg University, and from 1848 he also taught mineralogy. He published several works on anatomy and was a popularizer of natural history. In 1860 he was among the first Russians to favourably comment on Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution. In 1852 he helped produce a geological map of Saint Petersburg for which he received a Demidov Prize and a. After his death, he was succeeded in his position at the university by his student Karl Kessler.