Johan Axel Palmén

He established the first bird ringing station in Finland by purchasing a piece of land in the village of Tvärminne.

He went to study at the Helsingfors Lyceum and became interested in science at a young age with encouragement from his uncle Evert Julius Bonsdorff who was a well-known zoologist and educationist.

He made a collection trip to Austria-Hungary in 1870 and helped in editing a book on Finland's birds by Magnus von Wright.

This made him shift to ornithology and with the thesis Om foglarnes flyttningsvägar he received his doctorate in 1875.

He clashed with ideas on bird migration with the German ornithologist E. F. von Homeyer and published further clarifications and rebuttals to criticism in a 100 page publication.