Jeanne Villepreux-Power

Jeanne Villepreux-Power, born Jeanne Villepreux (24 September 1794 – 25 January 1871), was a pioneering French marine biologist who in 1832 was the first person to create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms. The English biologist Richard Owen referred to her as the "Mother of Aquariophily." She was the inventor of the aquarium and the systematic application of the aquarium to study marine life, which is still used today. In her time as a forefront cephalopods researcher, she proved that the Argonauta argo produces its own shells, as opposed to acquiring them. Villepreux-Power was also a noted dressmaker, author, and conservationist, as well as the first female member of the Catania Accademia Gioenia.