25 Facts About Hugh Iltis

Hugh Iltis was born Hugo Hellmut Iltis to Anni and Hugo Iltis, a botanist and geneticist who was a life sciences teacher at the German-language secondary school of Brunn.

Hugh Iltis's father was the first biographer of Gregor Mendel and a vocal opponent of Nazi "racial science".

Hugh Iltis recalled that during a midnight stop at the Stuttgart station, Gestapo officers combed the train, removing ten passengers; the Iltises survived because the boys pretended to be asleep while their mother bluffed that she was the wife of a French diplomat.

In Cherbourg, they were joined by Hugo Hugh Iltis and boarded the passenger ship RMS Aquitania for the Atlantic crossing.

Hugh Iltis carried out graduate studies at Washington University in St Louis, where he received his Ph.

Hugh Iltis was primarily trained in plant systematics and taxonomy, with a focus on the caper family and the spider-flower family.

Hugh Iltis arranged to purchase much of the Catholic University of America herbarium when it was deaccessioned.

An avid naturalist, Hugh Iltis conducted numerous expeditions to Mexico and Central and South America to search for new discoveries.

Hugh Iltis' work was of economic importance, because he identified new sources of genetic variability that have been used by horticultural breeders.

Hugh Iltis collected specimens for several herbaria, and sent samples and seeds to various specialists in the field.

Hugh Iltis used taxonomic and morphological approaches to investigate the domestication of corn, tracing the changes that transformed an unpromising wild grass into one of the most important food crops.

Hugh Iltis's work supported the view that domestic corn was derived from a species of teosinte, a group of grasses that grows wild in many areas of Mexico.

Hugh Iltis used a hypothetical illustration of this plant for a New Year's greeting card that he sent to family and friends in 1976.

In 1978, Hugh Iltis led a team of botanists to the site and determined that it was in fact a heretofore unknown species of teosinte, Zea diploperennis, which is valued for its resistance to certain viruses.

Hugh Iltis warned that the practice of collecting plants in tropical countries without involving local botanists and without depositing duplicate specimens in local herbaria would eventually cause trouble.

Hugh Iltis was an outspoken environmentalist and conservationist, championing the preservation of threatened habitats to protect biodiversity.

Hugh Iltis campaigned with colleagues at the University of Guadalajara to protect the natural environment of Zea diploperennis by creating the 345,000-acre Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve.

Hugh Iltis cofounded the Wisconsin chapter of the Nature Conservancy in 1960 and helped establish Hawaii's Natural Areas Law of 1970.

Hugh Iltis was a leader in the campaign to ban DDT in Wisconsin, which in 1968 was the first US state to do so.

Hugh Iltis called for a moratorium on cutting virgin timber in the state.

Hugh Iltis fathered four sons, Frank and Michael by his first wife, Grace Schaffel, and David and John by his second wife, Carolyn Merchant.

Hugh Iltis remained active up to his death in Madison at age 91 from complications of vascular disease.

Fellow botanists have honored Hugh Iltis by naming two genera and 19 species of plants after him.

Hugh Iltis received the Asa Gray Award of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and a Merit Award of the Botanical Society of America.

Hugh Iltis received the Sol Feinstone Environmental Award conferred by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, the National Wildlife Federation's Merit Award, and the Society for Conservation Biology Service Award.