In memoriam -- Charles Heiser

I learned yesterday that one of the giants of 20th century botany, Charles B. Heiser, Jr. passed away on Friday, 11 June. I'll post more details when I learn them. For now, here's the blurb about him from the Indiana University Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors.

Charles Heiser was born in Cynthiana, Indiana in 1920. He received his A.B. (1942) and M.A. (1943) from Washington University in St. Louis and his Ph.D. from the University of California in Berkeley in 1947. In that same year he joined the faculty of Indiana University.

His early research was with sunflowers (Helianthus), a genus that includes several cultivated plants as well as a large number of wild species. Through these studies Heiser first became interested in natural hybridization and its evolutionary significance and later in the origin of domesticated plants. The latter in turn led to consideration of the origin of agriculture. In addition to sunflowers he has also become an authority on a number of other plants, mostly ones of economic importance, such as chili peppers, naranjillas, various gourds and the totora. In recent years much of his research has been involved with plant breeding.

He has served as president of the following organizations: American Society of Plant Taxonomists (1967), Society for the Study of Evolution (1974), Society for Economic Botany (1978) and the Botanical Society of America (1980). He also has received the following honors: Guggenheim Fellowship (1953), Gleason Award of the New York Botanical Garden (1969), Merit Award of the Botanical Society of America (1972), Distinguished Economic Botanist from the Society of Economic Botany (1984), Pustovoit Award from the International Sunflower Association (1985) the Asa Gray Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (1988) and the 2002 Raven Award presented by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. In 1987 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to his scientific papers, he has written six semi-popular books dealing with useful plants and related subjects. Twenty nine students have received their doctoral degree under his direction.