Alexandre Romanovich Prigogine (12 April 1913, Moscow - 7 May 1991, Brussels) was a Belgian mineralogist and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

of Russian-Jewish origin. Born into a Jewish family in Moscow, his father Roman (Ruvim Abramovich) Prigogine was a chemical engineer and his mother Julia Vichman, a pianist. His younger brother

Ilya Prigogine Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (; ; 28 May 2003) was a Belgian physical chemist of Russian-Jewish origin, noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility. Prigogine's work most notably earned him the 19 ...

later won a

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

. In 1921 the family left Russia and travelled through Lithuania and Germany to settle in Belgium in 1929. After studying chemistry at the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

he moved to the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

in 1938 to study its mineral wealth.

Henri Schouteden Henri Schouteden (9 July 1881 in Brussels – 15 November 1972 in Brussels) was a Belgian zoologist, ornithologist and entomologist who undertook numerous expeditions into the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Works (All in French) *Schouteden, H. (191 ...

convinced him in 1946 to take an interest in birds and to collect specimens in the east of the Belgian Congo. This new interest led to him publishing 94 papers on ornithology and he collected nearly 20,000 specimens. He described several new species including Albertine owlet (''Glaucidium albertinum''), Kabobo apalis (''Apalis kaboboensis'') and the Itombwe flycatcher (''Muscicapa itombwensis'') and about 30 new subspecies. Itombwe owl (''Tyto prigoginei''), Prigogine's nightjar (''Caprimulgus prigoginei''), Prigogine's double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris prigoginei'') and

Prigogine's greenbul Prigogine's greenbul (''Chlorocichla prigoginei'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found only in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. I ...

(''Chlorocichla prigoginei'') have been named after him.

References

1913 births 1991 deaths Belgian ornithologists Belgian people of Russian-Jewish descent 20th-century Belgian zoologists Soviet emigrants to Belgium {{ornithologist-stub