Strasburger, Eduard Adolf (1844-1912)

German botanist who discovered that the nucleus of plant cells divides during cell division and clarified the role that chromosomes play in heredity. It had previously been thought that the nucleus disappeared during cell division until Strasburger saw the nucleus of a dividing cell divide.

He coined the terms: ‘chloroplast’ (the structure in a plant cell where photosynthesis occurs), ‘cytoplasm’ (the part of a cell that is outside the nucleus), ‘haploid’ (having a single set of chromosomes in each cell), ‘diploid’ (having two sets of chromosomes in each cell) and ‘nucleoplasm’ (or karyoplasm, the substance of the nucleus).

Strasburger was born in Warsaw, Poland and left for Paris 1862 to study at the Sorbonne. Two years later he moved to the University of Bonn, where he studied botany and heard Julius von Sachs lecture at nearby Poppelsdorf. It was while he was in Bonn that he met Nathaniel Pringsheim and Ernst Haeckel. He later went to Jena to become Pringsheim's laboratory assistant. He obtained his doctorate 1866 from Jena University. When he was 27 years old, he was appointed professor and director of the botanical gardens in Jena. In 1873, he and Haeckel undertook an expedition to Egypt and the Red Sea. In 1881, he was made professor of cytology at Bonn University, and he was rector of the university 1891-92.