MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A body found snagged on a tree in the Mississippi River carried the identification of a missing Harvard University scientist who was last seen in Memphis over a month ago.

Memphis police Lt. Joe Scott said the body and the wallet with Don C. Wiley's identification were found Thursday by workers at a hydroelectric plant in Vidalia, La., about 300 miles south of Memphis.

An autopsy was scheduled in Memphis on Friday.

Wiley, 57, has been missing since Nov. 16, when his rental car was discovered on a Mississippi River bridge. The keys were in the ignition and the gas tank was full.

The molecular biologist had been in Memphis for a two-day annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

His disappearance, following the terrorist attacks by about a month, had raised larger concerns because Wiley had done research into a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola, a fever that is highly contagious and lethal.

Scientific organizations, including St. Jude, posted rewards totaling $26,000 for information leading to the "arrest and charge" of anyone responsible for Wiley's disappearance.

"We're holding out any and all hope that this is not Don," St. Jude hospital deputy director Dr. William Evans said Thursday. "I can't speculate on what happened, but the night he went missing we were with a very engaging and outgoing individual who was acting completely normal."

Memphis police consider Wiley's disappearance a missing persons case and have said it might have been suicide.

"As soon as the body gets in our morgue, the medical examiner will begin the autopsy to help answer a lot of questions," said Memphis Police Director Walter Crews.