Anton Dohrn

Anton Dohrn, a German zoologist, founded the Stazione Zoologica in Naples in 1872, largely with his own family's money and loans. He paid for it partly through a public aquarium and partly by renting laboratory "tables" to universities and governments, which then sent researchers to work with fresh marine animals. The model made it a meeting place for biologists from across Europe, and the station still operates as a national research institute.