Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist whose work fundamentally altered the scientific understanding of the natural world. Abandoning his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, Darwin pursued his passion for natural science at Christ's College, Cambridge. His career was defined by his five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle (1831–1836), during which his extensive geological and biological observations laid the groundwork for his future theories. The publication of his journal of the voyage established him as a popular author, while his early geological research on coral reefs earned him scientific acclaim.
For decades, Darwin investigated the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils, formulating his theory of natural selection by 1838. He publicly introduced his ideas alongside Alfred Russel Wallace in 1858, followed by the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, in 1859. This landmark text presented compelling evidence for evolutionary descent with modification, establishing natural selection as a primary driver of diversification. Darwin continued to expand his theories in subsequent publications, exploring human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man (1871) and early psychology in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
By the 1870s, the scientific community and the public largely accepted evolution as a fact, though natural selection was not fully recognized as its primary mechanism until the modern evolutionary synthesis of the mid-twentieth century. Darwin's final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms, was published in 1881, shortly before his death in 1882. He was honored with a burial in Westminster Abbey, cementing his legacy as one of the most influential figures in human history.
