Who was Carl Linnaeus?
Carl Linnaeus was born in Sweden on May 23rd 1707. He was the son of a curate and he grew up in a poor part of rural Sweden. He was the eldest of five children. He grew up to be a professor, scientist and doctor, and us known as creating the classification system that we use today to identify organisms.
Early life, education and career
As a young boy, Linnaeus loved to go into the garden with his father, who was a keen gardener. He learnt the names of the plants but, at that time, the names were long Latin names that were complicated and difficult to remember.
After attending school, he went to university to study medicine. His interest in plants continued and he began to study the use of plants, minerals and animals in medicine. Soon, some of the university professors noticed how knowledgeable he was about plants and invited him to become a teaching assistant. As well as studying himself, he spent his time travelling around to different places around Europe to collect as many plant samples as he could.
In 1735, he published his 'Systema Natura' which was an 11-page booklet outlining his new system for classifying organisms. During his career, he added more and more organisms to his system until he had created two large books.
During his career, he was a medical doctor before becoming a professor of botany at Uppsala University in 1741. Later, in 1747, Linneaus was appointed chief royal physician. He was then knighted in 1758, taking the name Carl von Linné.
