Oscar Brefeld

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

German botanist, mycologist, and prolific author of works in the field of mycology, being remembered for his writings on the heteroecious nature of fungal rusts and smuts. He pioneered culture techniques in the growth of fungi (using gelatin as a solid media), and in doing so, was able to study the life histories and systematic relationships of different groups of fungi. He is credited with providing nomenclature for a number of genera and species of fungi. The names Conidiobolus, Heterobasidion, Oligoporus and Polysphondylium (genus of slime mould) are a few of the genera that he described. He is remembered for his disagreements with Anton de Bary in regards to the nature of yeasts as well as to the sexual nature of fungi (Brefeld maintained that higher fungi were devoid of sexuality). The genus Brefeldia from the family Stemonitaceae is named after him. Every two years, the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Mykologie offers the "Oscar-Brefeld-Preis" to young scientists for work in the field of mycology. In 1898 Brefeld was stricken by glaucoma, and subsequently became totally blind. He died on 12 January 1925 in Berlin, aged 85. Link to Wikipedia biography