Born in
Zürich, he was educated at
Zürich and
Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical features of the
Alps, and at the age of sixteen he made a model of the
Tödi group. This came to the notice of
Arnold Escher von der Linth, to whom Heim was indebted for much encouragement and geological instruction in the field. In 1873 he became professor of
geology in the polytechnic school at Zürich, and in 1875 professor of geology in the university. In the same year he married
Marie Heim-Vögtlin, Switzerland's first woman physician. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Switzerland, and in 1884 the honorary degree of
PhD was conferred upon him at the
University of Berne. His work,
Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung (1878), is now regarded as a classic, and it served to inspire
Professor C Lapworth in his brilliant researches on the
Scottish Highlands (see
Geol. Mag. 1883). Heim also devoted considerable attention to the
glacial phenomena of the Alpine regions. The
Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1904 by the
Geological Society of London, Heim was a Sennenhund expert, and started to encourage breeders to take an interest in them. These efforts resulted in the re-establishment of the breed. In 1909, the dogs were recognized as a separate breed by the Swiss Kennel Club and entered as "Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund" in Volume 12 of the Swiss stud book. The
Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog are two of four distinctive farm-type dogs of Swiss origin that were saved from extinction and revitalized by Schertenlieb in the late 1800s. ==References==