Louis François Pourtalès (1823–80)

Swiss-born American naturalist. Joined Louis Agassiz’s group studying Swiss glaciers in 1840; moved to the United States in 1847. Joined the US Coast Survey in 1848, and worked on a variety of hydrographical studies. Took part in deep-sea dredging in the Florida Straits, 1867–9, discovering many corals and echinoderms. A genus of sea urchins was named after him. Keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, 1870.