Charles Frédéric Girard

Charles Frédéric Girard (; 8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology.

Biography Girard was born on 8 March 1822 in Mulhouse, France. He studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to Harvard University. Three years later, Spencer Fullerton Baird called him to the Smithsonian Institution to work on its growing collection of North American reptiles, amphibians and fishes. He worked at the museum for the next ten years and published numerous papers, many in collaboration with Baird.

In 1854, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Besides his work at the Smithsonian, he managed to earn an M.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1856. In 1859 he returned to France and was awarded the Cuvier Prize by the Institute of France for his work on the North American reptiles and fishes two years later. Girardinus Poey, 1854 Girardinichthys Bleeker, 1860 Cambarus girardianus Faxon, 1884 Masticophis taeniatus girardi (Stejneger & Barbour, 1917) Microcyphus girardi Desor Synapta girardi Pourtalès Vortex girardi O. Schmidt, 1857