Francesco Redi was an Italian physician, naturalist, biologist, and poet. He is referred to as the "founder of experimental biology", and as the "father of modern parasitology". He was the first person to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies.
Portrait by Jacob Ferdinand Voet
Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti frontcover
A modern rendering of Redi's experiment on abiogenesis
Illustration from Rediʼs Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in a particular branch of biology and have a specific research focus.
Francesco Redi, founder of biology
Nobel Prize-winning biologist Barbara McClintock
Martinus Willem Beijerinck, a botanist and microbiologist