Joseph Ritter von Russegger (18 October 1802 – 20 June 1863) was an Austrian

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

who was a native of

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

. He received his education in Salzburg, and in the years 1823 to 1825, was associated with the Mining and Forestry Academy at Schemnitz. From 1831 to 1835, he served as a manager of mines at Böckstein. From 1836 he conducted geological studies in northern Africa, the Middle East and

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. On the expedition, he was accompanied by

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Theodor Kotschy Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy (15 April 1813 – 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and explorer. On his botanical investigations, Kotschy collected large amounts of plants. For example, he described forty species of oak in this work, most of w ...

(1813-1866). In

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, at the request of Viceroy Mohammed Ali (1769-1849), he carried out geognostic and geological investigations of the country. In Sudan he explored its mineral resources that included searches for gold.Google Books
A biographical dictionary of the Sudan On his return trip to Europe (1839), on behalf of King Otto, he investigated Greek mining interests. Afterwards, he extensively toured the continent (Italy, south-western Germany, France, Britain,

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

, et al.). As a result of the expedition, he published the multi-volume series ''Reisen in Europa, Asien und Afrika'' (1841 to 1850). In 1843, he was appointed vice-director of the ''Berg- und Salinendirection'' for

Tirol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

, and in 1850 became director of the Lower Hungarian mining district. In 1848, he became a member of the

Vienna Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

References

Additional sources

ADB: Russegger, Joseph Ritter von
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Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

Geological Maps of Europe 1780-1918
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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Russegger, Joseph 19th-century Austrian geologists Scientists from the Austrian Empire Scientists from Salzburg 1802 births 1863 deaths People from the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg