Roger Heim

Roger Heim
Born February 12, 1900(1900-02-12)
Paris, France
Died October 20, 1979(1979-10-20) (aged 79)
Paris, France
Residence France
Citizenship French
Nationality France
Fields Mycology, phytopathology
Institutions French National Museum of Natural History (1951-1965)
Alma mater University of Paris
Known for Basic work on the hymenium anatomy, systematics and phylogeny of higher fungi, tropical mycology, ethnomycology
Notable awards

Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Darwin-Wallace Medal (1958)
Honorary Member of the Mycological Society of America (1973)
Commandeur de l'Legion d'Honeur
"la Medaille de la Resistance"

"la Croix de Guerre
Author abbreviation (botany) R.Heim

Roger Heim (February 12, 1900 – September 17, 1979) was a French botanist specialising in mycology and tropical phytopathology. He was known for his studies describing the anatomy of the mushroom hymenium, the systematics and phylogeny of higher fungi (especially the related genera Lactarius and Russula, the Russulales and Secotium), the mycology of tropical fungi such as Termitomyces, as well as ethnomycological work on hallucinogenic fungi, like Psilocybe and Stropharia. In his career he published over 560 articles, scientific reviews, and major works in fields like botany, chemistry, education, forestry, horticulture, liberal arts, medicine and zoology.[1]

Contents

Career

Heim studied at the University of Paris (D.Sc., 1931) and Uppsala University, Sweden (Hon. Ph.D.) and went on to become the director of the French National Museum of Natural History, a post he held from 1951 to 1965. In this period of time, he presided the 8th International Botanical Congress held in Paris in 1954.

Among the many awards Heim received in his lifetime, he was a Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Heim studied with ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson in Mexico, where they collected and identified various species of family Strophariaceae and genus Psilocybe. Heim was able to later cultivate some of the hallucinogenic mushroom in his laboratory, and he and Wasson would supply mushrooms to several chemistry laboratories for analysis.[2] Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories in Basle, Switzerland, later isolated and characterized the compounds psilocybin and psilocin.

He was also a member of the French Académie d'agriculture and the Académie d'architecture.

He was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958 and appointed an Honorary Member of the Mycological Society of America in 1973.

Major publications

  • vol. 2. 572 p.
  • 1969. 2nd ed. as one vol., 680 p.
  • 2nd rev. ed in 1978. Société des Éditions Boubée. 270 p.

Articles on psychotropic mushrooms

The standard author abbreviation R.Heim is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

References

  1. ^ Batra, L.R. (1980). "Professor Roger Heim". Mycologia 72(6): 1063–1065.
  2. ^ No author given. (1980). An Old, Bold Mushroom Hunter. Science News 118(5): 76.
  3. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

External links