11 Facts About Roger Heim

Roger Heim was a French botanist specialising in mycology and tropical phytopathology.

Roger Heim was known for his studies describing the anatomy of the mushroom hymenium, the systematics and phylogeny of higher fungi, the mycology of tropical fungi such as Termitomyces, as well as ethnomycological work on hallucinogenic fungi, like Psilocybe and Stropharia.

Roger Heim became secretary of the Botanical Society of France in 1922, and graduated from the Ecole Centrale in 1923.

Roger Heim then became curator at the Institut botanique du Lautaret.

Roger Heim developed an interest in tropical mycology, tropical plant pathology and termite mound fungi in Black Africa.

Roger Heim went on to become the director of the French National Museum of Natural History, a post he held from 1951 to 1965.

Roger Heim involved the Museum in the conservation of nature, as he was a precursor about the environmental concern while, at this time, most of the biologists only cared about science but not about the biodiversity loss.

Roger Heim was President of IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, from 1954 to 1958.

Roger Heim was able to later cultivate most of the hallucinogenic mushroom in his laboratory.

Roger Heim was a member of the French Academie d'agriculture and the Academie d'architecture.

Roger Heim was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958, elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1959, and appointed an Honorary Member of the Mycological Society of America in 1973.