Alexandre Prigogine

Alexandre Romanovich Prigogine (12 April 1913, Moscow - 7 May 1991, Brussels) was a Russian-born mineralogist and ornithologist who worked in Belgium.

Alexandre Prigogine
Born
Alexandre Romanovich Prigogine

(1913-04-12)12 April 1913
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died7 May 1991(1991-05-07) (aged 78)
Brussels, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology

Born in a Jewish family, his father Roman (Ruvim Abramovich) Prigogine was a chemical engineer and his mother Julia Vichman, a pianist. His younger brother Ilya Prigogine later won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1921 the family left Russia and travelled through Lithuania and Germany to settle in Belgium in 1929. After studying chemistry at the Université Libre de Bruxelles he moved to the Belgian Congo in 1938 to study its mineral wealth.

Henri Schouteden convinced him in 1946 to take an interest in birds and to collect specimens in the east of the Belgian Congo. This new interest led to him publishing 94 papers on ornithology and he collected nearly 20,000 specimens. He described several new species including Albertine owlet (Glaucidium albertinum), Schouteden's swift (Schoutedenapus schoutedeni), Kabobo apalis (Apalis kaboboensis) and the Itombwe flycatcher (Muscicapa itombwensis) and about 30 new subspecies. Congo bay owl (Pholidus prigoginei), Prigogine's nightjar (Caprimulgus prigoginei) and Prigogine's greenbul (Chlorocichla prigoginei) have been named after him.[1]

References
  1. Louette, Michel (1992-01-01). "Obituary: Alexandre Prigogine (1913-1991)". Ibis. 134 (1): 89–90. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1992.tb07238.x. ISSN 1474-919X.


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