Benedykt Dybowski (May 12, 1833 - January 31, 1930) was a Polish naturalist and physician.
Benedykt Dybowski was born in Adamaryni of Navahrudak district of the Hrodna region (former Minsk province).
He studied at Minsk high school, and later medicine at Tartu (earlier Dorpat) University (Estonia). He later studied in Breslau University and went on expeditions to seek and study the oceanic fishes and crustaceans. He became a Professor of Zoology at the Warsaw main school.
In 1863 he was arrested and condemned to death for taking part in Polish January Uprising. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years in Siberia.
He started studying the natural history of Siberia and in 1866 a governor Muraviov dismissed Dybowski from the hard labour (katorga), renewed his civil rights and proposed him to work as a doctor in hospital.
He later settled in a small village Kultuk and began detailed studying of Baikal Lake with some technical support of Russian Geographical Society. He served as a medical doctor for indigenous population of Kamchatka, Aleutian Islands, Commander Islands, Bering Island, making four trips per year around the populated areas there.
In 1927 the Academy of Sciences in the USSR elected Dybowski as a member-correspondent. Apart from that in 1921 Dybowski was given an honorary doctorate by the Warsaw's University, and in 1923 by the University of Wilno. On 95th Dybowski's birthday he was congratulated by Shevchenko Scientific Society government.
Dybowski spent last years of his life in Lwów, in his house on Kubanskaia 12. Dybowski died at the age 97 years. He is buried in Lwów on the Łyczakowski cemetery among the participants of the Polish Uprising of 1863.
Most of his collection of zoological and botanical artifacts is now in Lwów Zoological museum.
An amphipod (Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis), supposedly from Lake Baikal and named by him[1] was once considered the longest scientific name. However, that name is no longer considered valid.
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