Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is renowned for discovering classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs, particularly focusing on their salivary responses to food stimuli. He demonstrated that dogs could learn to associate a sound (bell) with food, leading to salivation even in the absence of food, a process he termed conditioned reflex action. Pavlov's groundbreaking work in this area earned him the Nobel Prize for his research on the physiology of digestion.