Swiss anatomist, botanist, poet and novelist. Albrecht von Haller studied with Herman Boerhaave in Leiden, graduating in 1727. Afterwards he visited London, where he met Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), John Pringle (1707-1782) and other notable scientists, then returned home via Paris, moving at this time to Basel to study mathematics under John Bernoulli (1667-1748). It was during this period that Haller became interested in botany and while touring Switzerland in the summer of 1728 began to build up a herbarium, these collections eventually leading to the publication of his 1742 flora of Switzerland. Haller shared some of his collections, for example giving alpine plants to George Clifford for his herbarium at The Hartekamp in the Netherlands. He was, however, an outspoken opponent of the ideas of Clifford's private botanist, Carl Linnaeus, declaring his new system of classification unnatural.

While practising as a physician in Bern from 1729, Haller directed most of his energies towards research in botany and anatomy. Recognised for this work, in 1736 he was appointed Professor of Medicine, Anatomy, Surgery and Botany and at Göttingen, where he remained for 17 years. During this time he organised a new botanical garden at the university as well as an anatomical theatre and museum. In 1732 he had also published a book of verse, Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte, which brought him acclaim as a poet. Haller's key works in anatomy and physiology, meanwhile, were his series Icones anatomicae (1743-1756) and his animal experiments which showed that the body was an active organism reacting to stimulants.

Having built a reputation that extended beyond his home country, Haller was elected to the main European academies, including the Royal Society (1743), and was ennobled in 1749. He returned to Bern in 1753, where he was given a minor political post on the council and worked on his Bibliotheca medica and a number of novels. He retired from public business in 1773 due to ill health, administering opium to himself as a means of treatment. Haller died four years later, leaving behind eight children from his three marriages.

Sources:
Haller 300:
http://www.haller300.ch/index.html, accessed 22 November 2011.