Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German naturalist, zoologist, botanist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist.

He first studied theology at the University of Leipzig, then medicine and natural sciences in Berlin and became a friend of the famous explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

In 1820–1825, on a scientific expedition to the Middle East with his friend Wilhelm Hemprich, he collected thousands of specimens of plants and animals.

He investigated parts of Egypt, the Libyan Desert, the Nile valley and the northern coasts of the Red Sea,[2] where he made a special study of the corals.

He was particularly interested in a unicellular group of protists called diatoms, but he also studied, and named, many species of radiolaria, foraminifera and dinoflagellates.

This research had an important bearing on some of the infusorial earths used for polishing and other economic purposes; they added, moreover, largely to our knowledge of the microorganisms of certain geological formations, especially of the chalk, and of the marine and freshwater accumulations.

The "Ehrenberg Collection" includes 40,000 microscope preparations, 5,000 raw samples, 3,000 pencil and ink drawings, and nearly 1,000 letters of correspondence.

[6] In 1998 the Linnean Society of London dedicated a special issue to "Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg (1795–1876) The man and his legacy".

She aided his scientific research, organised and indexed his collections and correspondence, and prepared a taxonomic reference book.