Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish professor of botany and also of medicine. He spent the latter part of his life collecting and naming plants and animals. He developed a system of uniquely classifying every different type of item.
This development of unique labelling activity was being widely pursued by scientific observers throughout the World. Of the various techniques that were being devised that of Linneaus turned out to be the best from many points of view ~ accuracy and economy being the main distinguishing features. It has been tweaked over the years ~ and remains use today. Readers prepared to embark furthering their knowledge of this might consult Wikipedia which has a lengthy and authoritative article on Binomial nomenclature.
Linneaus was well educated and had a wide variety of important appointments at various European universites ~ eventually ending up as Rector of Natural Sciences at Uppsala University. My notes on this page are all taken from Wikipedia ~ where there is a lengthy article covering his life and achievements Biography of Linneaus. He was ennobled by the Swedish King in 1761.
On reading the notes in Wikipedia I discover two small ~ possibly little known ~ facts that are worth mentioning. Firstly ~ he started a movement to encourage breast feeding by mothers ~ and discourage the common practice of passing the task to wet-nurses. Secondly he is cited as trying ...'to teach the students to think for themselves and not trust anybody, not even him.'