Founder of the binary nomenclature that is up until today valid for all organismal kingdoms. Very sure of himself, he characterized himself in an autobiography as follows:
"Nobody has practised his profession with more eagerness or has had more students attending his lectures at our university. No natural scientist has made more observations in nature. Nobody has had a more profound insight into all three kingdoms of nature at the same time. No-one was a greater botanist or zoologist. Nobody has written more works, better, more precise, of his own experience. No-one has so completely reformed a whole science and thus started a new epoch. Nobody has kept such a world-wide correspondence. Nobody has sent out as many pupils into so many different parts of the world. Nobody was more famous all over the world. No-one was a member of more scientific societies.... "