Lauro Pereira Travassos (2 July 1890 – 20 November 1970) was a Brazilian parasitologist. He collected helminth specimens from across South America and studied their life-histories. He built a Brazilian school of parasitology through his students. His son Lauro Pereira Travassos Filho (1918–1989) became an entomologist while another son Haroldo Pereira became an ichthyologist. Travassos was born in

Angra dos Reis Angra dos Reis (; Portuguese language, Portuguese for ''cove'' or ''bay of the Kings'') is a List of municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, municipality located in the southern part of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro. Th ...

. He studied medicine at Rio de Janeiro and his first work was on ''

Linguatula serrata ''Linguatula serrata'' is a species of cosmopolitan zoonotic parasite, belonging to the tongueworm order Pentastomida. They are wormlike parasites of the respiratory systems of vertebrates. They live in the nasopharyngeal region of mammals. Cats ...

'' in the intestine of a patient. His doctoral thesis was on species of Heterakinae. He then worked at the

Instituto Oswaldo Cruz The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation ( Portuguese ''Fundação Oswaldo Cruz'', also known as FIOCRUZ) is a scientific institution for research and development in biological sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it is considered one of the world's ...

which was then called the Manguinhos under José Gomes de Faria. He became chair of parasitology at the faculty of medicine in São Paulo in 1926. In 1929 he went to the tropical institute of Hamburg to work with the helminthologist

Friedrich Fülleborn Friedrich Fülleborn (September 13, 1866 – September 9, 1933) was a physician who specialized in tropical medicine and parasitology. He was a native of Kulm, West Prussia, which today is known as Chełmno, Poland. He studied medicine and natura ...

(1866–1933). He became a full professor in the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro and taught at the Escola de Veterinária from the 1930s and began to establish a collection of helminths. He published nearly 420 papers on helminthology and a small number also on insects. Travassos married Odete with whom he had four children including Lauro who became an entomologist and Haroldo who became an ichthyologist.

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Biography and film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Travassos, Lauro Pereira 1890 births 1970 deaths Parasitologists Brazilian naturalists Brazilian entomologists Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences People from Angra dos Reis