Theodor Bilharz

Theodor Maximilian Bilharz (March 23, 1825 – May 9, 1862) was a German physician and an important pioneer in the field of parasitology.

Education
Attended the secondary school in Sigmaringen and took an early interest in entomology and studied philosophy for two years at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg im Breisgau. He graduated as a pathologist from the University of Tübingen in 1848.

Medical career
In 1850 he journeyed to Egypt and became the first chief of the surgery at the Kasr-el-Aini Medical School of Cairo. In 1851, during an autopsy, he discovered Distomum haematobium (since renamed Schistosoma haematobium), the trematode worm that is the cause of urinary schistosomiasis, In 1853 he became chief of medicine there. In 1856 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy. He died on an expedition to Massawah in 1862, of typhus, at the age of 37.

Bilharzia is an obsolete name for schistosomiasis.

The Theodor Bilharz Research Institute in Giza, Egypt, is named in his honor, as is Bilharz crater on the Moon.