Felix Eugen Fritsch FRS (26 April 1879 – 2 May 1954) was a British

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. Fritssch was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in London in 1879 where his father owned and operated a school. Fritsch started his career at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

before moving to research at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and also the Royal Botanic Gardens at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

. He was Professor and Head of the Botanical Department,

Queen Mary College Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and previously Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of ...

(formerly East London College),

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, from 1911-1948. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in May 1932 and won their

Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...

in 1950. He served as President of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

from 1949 to 1952 and was awarded the society's

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

in 1954. He is best known internationally for his comprehensive two-volume ''The Structure and Reproduction of the Algae''; However his co-authored 1927 revised edition of G.S. West's ''A Treatise of the British Freshwater Algae'' of 1904 was also important. He had a great influence through his own research and also his encouragement to students. As an aid to his own studies on algal taxonomy and morphology, Fritsch brought together published illustrations under the names of the species. After his death this was continued by Dr J.W.G.Lund at the

Freshwater Biological Association The Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) is an independent scientific organisation founded in 1929 in Cumbria by Felix Eugen Fritsch, William Harold Pearsall, Francis Balfour-Browne, and Robert Gurney among others. Whilst originally created to ...

and became ''The Fritsch Collection of Illustrations of Freshwater Algae''.John, D.M., Whitton, B.A. and Brook, A.J. 2002. ''The Freshwater Algal Flora of the British Isles.'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lund, J.W.G.1961. The Fritsch Collection of Illustrations of Freshwater Algae. ''Phycologia'' 1,193. He was honoured in 1932, when botanists Mandeyam Osuri and Parthasarathy Iyengar published '' Fritschiella'', which is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

green algae The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

in the family Fritschiellaceae and named after Felix Eugen Fritsch.

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External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090704112837/http://www.fritschalgae.info/Prof_Fritsch.html * http://www.fritschalgae.info 1879 births 1954 deaths British marine biologists British phycologists Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the Linnean Society of London Academics of University College London British expatriates in Germany {{UK-biologist-stub

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