caption death_date death_place birth_place awards nationality fields birth_date image article_title alma_mater
charles frédéric girard in 1891 29 january 1895 neuilly-sur-seine mulhouse , france cuvier prize -lrb- 1859 -rrb- french biology herpetology ichthyology 8 april 1822 girard charles frédéric 1822-1895 . png charles frédéric girard
 georgetown university
charles frédéric girard

charles frédéric girard -lrb- 8 march 1822 -- 29 january 1895 -rrb- was a french biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology .
born in mulhouse , france , he studied at the college of neuchâtel , switzerland as a student of louis agassiz .
in 1847 , he accompanied agassiz as his assistant to harvard .
three years later , spencer fullerton baird called him to the smithsonian to work on its growing collection of north american reptiles , amphibians and fishes .
he worked at the museum for the next ten years and published numerous papers , many in collaboration with baird .
in 1854 , he was naturalized as a u.s. citizen .
besides his work at the smithsonian , he managed to earn an m.d. from georgetown university in washington , d.c. in 1856 .
in 1859 he returned to france and was awarded the cuvier prize by the institute of france for his work on the north american reptiles and fishes two years later .
when the american civil war broke out , he joined the confederates as an agent for surgical and medical supplies .
after the war , he remained in france and started a medical career .
during the franco-prussian war he served as a military physician and published an important paper on the typhoid fever after the siege of paris .
he remained active as a medical doctor until ca. 1888 .
in the following three years , he published a few more papers on natural history .
he retired in 1891 and spent the rest of his life in neuilly-sur-seine , where he died in 1895 .
