Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm

Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm (11 September 1847 – 13 September 1875) was a German naturalist who served aboard the Challenger expedition.

Willemoes-Suhm was born in Glückstadt, Duchy of Holstein. After starting to study law at the University of Bonn, he left Bonn to study zoology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München under Professor Karl von Siebold. The Phønix docked in Leith, and while in Edinburgh, Willemoes-Suhm met Charles Wyville Thomson, who would lead the Challenger expedition later that year.

Willemoes-Suhm joined the Challenger expedition at the last minute, and worked on many of the crustaceans that voyage discovered. He died on 13 September 1875, during the journey from Hawaii to Tahiti, and was buried at sea after a short illness with erysipelas. The genus Willemoesia is named after him, as is Suhm Island in Royal Sound (Kerguelen Archipelago), which was first charted on the voyage of the H.M.S. Challenger, and the Sohm Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic Ocean. He was awarded the Challenger Medal posthumously.