James X. Corgan

George T. Bowen was the first prominent scientist recruited to teach in a Tennessee college. A Rhode Island native, he was admitted to Yale in 1819 with sophomore standing. He graduated in 1822, then went to the University of Pennsylvania,…

Andrew H. Buchanan, early professor of mathematics and civil engineering and topographer-surveyor, was born in Boonsboro, Arkansas, on June 28, 1828. He attended Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and received the A.B. degree in 1853. The following year, Buchanan accepted…

Richard O. Currey, the first person with an earned doctorate to teach science at what is now the University of Tennessee, was a prolific author, an innovative educator, and a newsworthy minister. A Nashville native, Currey graduated from the University…

Henri Erni, Tennessee's first consulting chemist, was born in Switzerland in 1822. Erni studied at the University of Zurich, where he excelled in chemistry, although he may not have received a degree. In 1849 Erni emigrated to the United States,…

Records of Tennessee's diverse geology of complex mountains, rivers, valleys, rocks, minerals, soils, and earthquakes began with reports by literate travelers. The first such report was made by Father J. F. Buisson St. Cosme, who survived a Memphis-area earthquake in…

Francis H. Gordon, pioneer in scientific agriculture, was born in Gordonsville, Smith County, on August 6, 1804. Though he rarely left Smith County, he exerted a lasting influence on Tennessee antebellum agriculture. In 1830 he joined a group that organized…

An articulate advocate of scientific agriculture, Alexander Jackson completed a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1824 and came to Tennessee five years later, establishing a medical practice at Paris in Henry County. Jackson soon demonstrated his interests…

Albert Miller Lea, a prominent chief engineer of the State of Tennessee, was born in Knoxville in 1805. Lea learned his engineering skills in the army. He entered West Point and graduated fifth in a class of thirty-three in 1831.…

Engineers who modify the fluvial landscape of Tennessee should feel strong ties to Stephen Harriman Long, who served as an army engineer at a time when the role of government in engineering projects had not yet been defined. In the…

Cartographer, geologist, and educator Matthew Rhea was born near Blountville in 1795. He attended Washington College and earned his living by surveying, teaching, and farming. In 1820 he moved to Maury County, where surveying and cartography became his major interests.…

Ferdinand Rugel was a professional field botanist who primarily collected in the Southern Appalachians, Florida, and Cuba. His collections were sold in Europe, mainly through Robert James Shuttleworth, a British-born botanist who lived in Switzerland and France. Rugel was born…

A significant figure in Tennessee’s early medical history, John Shelby submitted a medical dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania “On Gunshot Wounds,” the interest of a true frontiersman. Shelby was the first Caucasian child born in what became Sumner County.…

Born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1787, Wilkins Tannehill came to Nashville in 1808; he was involved in politics, intellectual pursuits, Masonic activities, journalism, and publishing in the city for the rest of his life. Tannehill's political interests led him to…

The Tennessee Academy of Science, founded in 1912, provides guidance for Tennesseans on trends and issues in the sciences. Scholars from many fields interact during an annual gathering that offers discipline-specific sessions as well as a general meeting and/or a…

Gerard Troost, geologist, was born in s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, on March 5, 1776. As Tennessee state geologist (1831-50) and the state's best known antebellum scientist, Troost promoted mining, planned transportation routes, described soils, and wrote forty-three geological reports. As he traveled…