Olaus Rudbeck - Legacy

Legacy

Rudbeck was active in many scientific areas, including astronomy, and left many traces still visible in the city of Uppsala today.

During the course of a fire that destroyed most of Uppsala in 1702, a large portion of Rudbeck's writings was lost. Rudbeck himself directed the people of the city, shouting orders from a roof while his house burned down. He died the same year, shortly after the fire, and was buried in Uppsala Cathedral at the transept. (Since then, Swedish monarchs have frequently been crowned over his grave.)

The Nobel family, including Ludvig Nobel, the founder of Branobel, and Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prizes, was a descendant of Rudbeck through his daughter Wendela, who married one of her father's former students, Peter Olai Nobelius.

The plant genus Rudbeckia was named by the botanist Carolus Linnaeus in honor of both Rudbeck and his son.