Tribute to Professor Massimo Sella – former scientist and Director of the Marine Biological Station in Rovinj –

I 1891, Otto Hermes founded in Rovinj a station of Zoological garden and aquarium in Berlin, with the main purpose of collecting marine organisms for the Aquarium in Berlin. The famous German physician and pathophysiologist Rudolf Virchow visited several times his friend Baron Georg von Hûtterott in former monastery located on the island St. Andrija nearby the city of Rovinj, and deserved credit for the promotion of scientific activities and foundation of the research in the Biological Station. He initiated visits to the Rovinj’s institution by Fritz Schaudinn prominent scientist of that time (discovery of Spirocheta pallida pathogen of syphilis). In 1903 Stanislaus von Prowasek (biological cycle of parasitic flagellate Trypanosoma) accepted an invitation from Schaudin to work as his assistant collaborating with Biological Station in Rovinj. From 1907 until 1911 via a research vessel »Rudolf Virchow« were organized summer cruises in Adriatic Sea. Plankton collections were studied by Adolf Steuer (1910) author of Planktonkunde, a textbook used even now by students and scientists for studies of the aquatic plankton populations in Adriatic. Massimo Sella was appointed in 1923 as Director of Biological Station in Rovinj.