Olof
Rudbeck was born in
Uppsala, Sweden, the son of
Olaus Rudbeck Sr. (1630–1702), a professor of medicine at
Uppsala University. He travelled to England, Holland and Germany in 1687 to study botany. Rudbeck took a medical degree at the
Utrecht University in 1690. Returning to his home country in 1692, he succeeded his father as professor of medicine at
Uppsala University. Serving alongside
Lars Roberg (1664–1742), he specialized in anatomy, botany, zoology, and pharmacology, while Roberg gave lectures in medicine, surgery, physiology and chemistry.{{cite journal|title= Olaus Rudbeck as scientist and professor of medicine He travelled to
Lapland in 1695, joining an expedition commissioned by the King
Charles XI of Sweden (1655–1697), for which his mission was to study nature, the mountainous region in particular. He returned and published
Lapponia illustrata, an album of beautifully colored pictures of birds, flowers and scenery, for which he is best remembered. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Rudbeck turned his attention away from nature studies to speculation about the relationship between
Sami languages to
Finnish and
Hungarian. To honour his accomplishments (and posthumously, those of his namesake father), he was
ennobled in 1719 by Queen
Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden (1688–1741), as a "naturalized nobleman" (noble family of Rudbeck, nr. 1637). His student, the botanist
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), named a genus of flowers
Rudbeckia in honor of him and his father.{{cite web|url= https://sok.riksarkivet.se/Sbl/Mobil/Artikel/6973 |title= Rudbeck (Rudbeckius, Rudebeck, von Rudbeck), släkt The plant genus
Rudbeckia was named by Linnaeus in honor of both Rudbeck and his son. ==Personal life==