Eric Laxman

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Eric (Kirill) Gustavovich Laxman (Russian: Эрик (Кирилл) Густавович Лаксман) (July 27, 1737 - January 5, 1796) was a Finnish member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the 18th century. He is remembered today for his taxonomic work on the fauna of Siberia.

Laxman was also involved in one of the earliest contacts between Imperial Russia and Tokugawa Japan. In 1789, while doing research in the Irkutsk, Laxman came across a pair of Japanese who had been found in the Aleutian Islands by Russians, who were most likely fishermen or furriers. This was during a time when seafaring boats were banned in Japan, and leaving the country was forbidden; returning meant a death sentence. Nevertheless, the two castaways pleaded to be brought back to Japan. Instead, Laxman escorted them to St. Petersburg, then the Russian capital. In 1791, Tsarina Catherine the Great agreed to a plan conceived by Laxman, under which Laxman's son, Lt. Adam Laxman would command a voyage to Japan, where he would exchange the castaways for economic agreements and concessions. The elder Laxman remained in Russia.

The standard author abbreviation Laxm. may be used to indicate this person in citing a botanical name.

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McDougall, Walter (1993). "Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific." New York: Avon Books.