Mu Zang (28 December 1930 – 10 November 2011) was a Chinese

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

. He was known for his research on the

Boletales The Boletales are an order of Agaricomycetes containing over 1300 species with a diverse array of fruiting body types. The boletes are the best known members of this group, and until recently, the Boletales were thought to only contain boletes. T ...

of China, and the

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

in southwestern China. He described more than 140 new species and

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

three genera, published more than 150 research papers, was

chief editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

or co-editor for twelve books, and wrote two

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

s on the

Boletaceae The Boletaceae are a family of mushroom-forming fungi, primarily characterised by small pores on the spore-bearing hymenial surface (at the underside of the mushroom), instead of gills as are found in most agarics. Nearly as widely distributed ...

of China. His final book, "Dictionary of the Families and Genera of Chinese Cryptogamic (Spore) Plants" was co-authored with his wife, Professor Xinjiang Li.

Personal life

Mu Zang was born on 10 November 1930, in

Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...

, eastern China. After graduating in biology from Soochow University in 1953, he taught biology at

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NNU or NJNU; ) is a public research university in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher normal schools in China, and has become a research-intensi ...

from 1954 to 1973, where he eventually became a lecturer. In 1974 Zang began work as associate professor at the

Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming Institute of Botany, or KIB (), founded in 1938, is a research institution in the field of Botany, which is located in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, China. The Institute is one of the major herbariums in China and maintains a ...

of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

; he later was full research professor at this institute. Zang was largely responsible for the establishment of the Cryptogamic Herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany. This

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

, one of the largest and most active in the world, contains (as of 2012) more than 210,000 specimens. Zang personally contributed in excess of 13,800 fungal specimens, 24,500

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

specimens. Personal interests of Zang included painting,

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

, and

stamp collecting Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth ...

. Zang died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

on 10 November 2011.

Honours and awards

Among the awards won by Mu Zang include: *Chinese Academy of Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award (1986) *Chinese National Science Research Awards (1993, 1995, and 2004) *Science and Technology Application Progress Award of the Chinese Ministry of Forestry (1992) *Japanese N. Hiratsuka Award (2003) Zang was associate director of the Key Laboratory of Mycology and Lichenology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the vice president of the Mycological Society of China. Fungal taxa named in his honour include the species '' Amanita zangii'', '' Cantharellus zangii'', '' Aureoboletus zangii'', ''

Meliola zangii ''Meliola zangii'' is a species of fungus in the family Meliolaceae that is found in China. It was described as new to science in 2003 by Bin Song. The specific epithet honours mycologist Mu Zang, who collected the type specimen on 22 Septem ...

'', '' Nectria zangii'', '' Sinoboletus wangii'', and '' Tricholoma zangii'', and the

bolete {{refimprove, date=July 2020 A bolete is a type of mushroom, or fungal fruiting body. It can be identified thanks to a unique mushroom cap. The cap is clearly different from the stem. On the underside of the cap there is usually a spongy surfa ...

genus '' Zangia''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zang, Mu 1930 births 2011 deaths Chinese mycologists Nanjing Normal University faculty Writers from Yantai Soochow University (Suzhou) alumni Educators from Shandong Biologists from Shandong People's Republic of China science writers

Personal life

Honours and awards

See also

References