Ernst Mayr
Ernst Walter Mayr was one of the 20th centurys leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, systematics, and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.
OnMarch 1923 on the lakes of Moritzburg, the Frauenteich, he spotted what he identified as a redcrested pochard. The species had not been seen in Saxony since 1845 and the local club argued about the identity. Raimund Schelcher of the club then suggested that Mayr visit his classmate Erwin Stresemann on his way to Greifswald, where Mayr was to begin his medical studies. After a tough interrogation, Stresemann accepted and published the sighting as authentic. Stresemann was very impressed and suggested that, between semesters, Mayr could work as a volunteer in the ornithological section of the museum. Mayr wrote about this event, It was as if someone had given me the key to heaven. He entered the University of Greifswald in 1923 and, according to Mayr himself, took the medical curriculum but after only a year, he decided to leave medicine and enrolled at the Faculty of Biological Sciences. Mayr was endlessly interested in ornithology and chose Greifswald at the Baltic for my studi
Source: Wikipedia