Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben

Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben
Born
Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben

22 June 1744 (1744-06-22)
Died19 August 1777 (1777-08-20) (aged 33)
Alma materUniversity of Göttingen
Parent
Scientific career
FieldsNaturalist
InstitutionsUniversity of Göttingen
Doctoral advisorAbraham Gotthelf Kästner
Doctoral studentsChristian von Weigel

Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben (22 June 1744 – 19 August 1777) was a German naturalist from Quedlinburg.

Erxleben was professor of physics and veterinary medicine at the University of Göttingen. He wrote Anfangsgründe der Naturlehre (1772) and Systema regni animalis (1777). He was founder of the first and oldest academic veterinary school in Germany, the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, in 1771.

He was the son of Dorothea Christiane Erxleben, the first woman in Germany to earn a medical degree.