Wilhelm Philippe Schimper

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper (January 12, 1808 – March 20, 1880, in Lichtenberg) was an Alsatian botanist. He had French and later German citizenship. He was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel and grew up in Offwiller, a village near the Vosges mountains in Alsace.

Schimper discovered many important facts about plants and how they grow. His work helped scientists learn more about nature. He was the father of another botanist, Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper. He was also related to two other famous scientists, Karl Friedrich Schimper and Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper.

Life

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper studied at the University of Strasbourg. He later worked at the Natural History Museum there and became its director in 1839. From 1862 to 1879, he was a professor of geology and natural history at the university.

Schimper studied mosses and ancient plant fossils. He traveled across Europe to collect plant samples. He worked with other scientists to write important books about European mosses. In 1874, he helped create a new way to divide geological time. He called it the "Paleocene Era".

Honours

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper was honored by many important groups for his work. In 1854, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. In 1862, he joined the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and in 1866, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. By 1872, he was also a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Today, a street in Strasbourg is named after him to honor his work.

Writings

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper wrote many important books about plants. Some of his well-known works include "Bryologia europaea" from 1836 to 1855, "Monographie des plantes du fossiles grès bigarré de la chaine des Vosges" in 1841, and "Recherches sur les mousses anatomiques et morphologiques" in 1850. He also wrote about mosses and plant fossils, with books like "Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des Sphagnum" in 1854 and "Synopsis muscorum europaeorum" in 1860. His big work "Traité de Paléontologie végétale" came out between 1869 and 1874.

When scientists mention his work, they use the name Schimp. to show he was the author.