Friedrich Ris (8 January 1867 – 30 January 1931) was a Swiss

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

who specialised in

Odonata Odonata is an order of predatory flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies (as well as the '' Epiophlebia'' damsel-dragonflies). The two major groups are distinguished with dragonflies (Anisoptera) usually being bulkier with ...

. He was Director of a psychiatric clinic in Rheinau, Switzerland. Ris was born in Glarus, the son of merchant Frederick and Maria née Schmid. He went to school at Glarus before going to the University of Zurich and received a medical degree in 1890 with a dissertation on kidney surgery under Rudolf Ulrich Krönlein. He took an interest in entomology even as a young boy and published his first note on insects at the age of 19. After obtaining his medical degree, he worked as a ship doctor, travelling to the Americas and Asia and in 1892 moved to the University Hospital in Zurich and in 1895 he worked with the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in Rheinau. He also worked with

Auguste Forel Auguste-Henri Forel (; 1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and former eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. He is considered a c ...

at Burghölz in Zurich. In his spare time he collected dragonflies and studied them. He became a director of the Rheinau canton sanatorium in 1898. Ris described nearly 127 new species and published 100s of notes. He donated his collections to the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt.

References

Swiss entomologists 1867 births 1931 deaths {{Biologist-stub