Stepan Kutorga

Stepan Semyonovich Kutorga (Russian: Степан Семёнович Куторга; 12 February 1805 – 25 April 1861) was a Russian naturalist, zoologist and mineralogist who worked as a professor at the Saint Petersburg Imperial University.

In 1833 he obtained the chair of zoology at Saint Petersburg University, and from 1848 he also taught mineralogy.

In 1860 he was among the first Russians to favourably comment on Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.

[1] In 1852 he helped produce a geological map of Saint Petersburg for which he received a Demidov Prize and a Konstantinovsky Medal [ru].

After his death, he was succeeded in his position at the university by his student Karl Kessler.