Josiah Lincoln Lowe (13 February 1905 – 30 April 1997) was an American mycologist who specialized in the study of

polypore Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside (see Delimitation for exceptions). They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypor ...

s. Lowe was born in

Hopewell, New Jersey Hopewell is a borough in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. This historical settlement is located within the heart of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,918, a decreas ...

, where he attended primary school and high school. In 1927, he graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

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, New York, and he received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1938, with Calvin H. Kauffman and

Edwin Butterworth Mains Edwin Butterworth Mains (1890–1968) was an American mycologist. He was known for his taxonomic research on the rust fungi (Pucciniomycetes), the genus ''Cordyceps'', and the earth tongues (Geoglossaceae). Biography Edwin Butterworth Mains was ...

as his main academic supervisors. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''The genus ''Lecidea'' in the Adirondack Mountains of New York''. That year, he started his academic career at the

College of Forestry This is a list of tertiary educational institutions around the world offering bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees in forestry or related fields. Where noted, the country's accreditation board standard has been used and cited. They are gro ...

, a position he held for almost 40 years. He retired in 1975 and became an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. Lowe was the president of the

Mycological Society of America The Mycological Society of America (MSA) is a learned society that serves as the professional organization of mycologists in the U.S. and Canada. It was founded in 1932. The Society's constitution states that "The purpose of the Society is to promo ...

in 1960. In the 1980s, Lowe was diagnosed with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

; he died in Syracuse. Several fungal

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

have been named in his honor, including the species '' Leptoporus lowei'' Pilát, '' Lindtneria lowei'' M. J. Larsen, '' Ploioderma lowei'' Czabator, and '' Polyporus lowei'' Burdsall & Lombard, and the genera '' Loweporus'' J. E. Wright, '' Loweomyces'' (Kotl. & Pouzar) Jülich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Josiah Lincoln 1905 births 1997 deaths American mycologists Syracuse University alumni University of Michigan alumni People from Hopewell, New Jersey New York State College of Forestry 20th-century American botanists