Albert Pilát (November 2, 1903 – May 29, 1974) was a Czech

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

. He studied at the Faculty of Science at

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

, under the guidance of Professor

Josef Velenovský Josef Velenovský (22 April 1858 – 7 May 1949) was a Czech botanist, mycologist, pteridologist, and bryologist. He also worked with fossils. He was a research investigator and professor in the Botanical Institute of the University of Prague, ...

. In 1930, he joined the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

, eventually becoming head of the Mycological Department, and in 1960 a corresponding member of the academy. He was the author of many popular and scholarly publications in the field of mycology and mountain flora. He also served as the main editor of the scientific journal '' Czech Mycology'', and described several species of fungi. His areas of particular interest include polypores and boletes. He explored the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

looking for fungi and travelled widely. Between 1933 and 1948 he edited the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series ''Fungi Carpatici lignicoli exsiccati''. He was also a skilled photographer. In 1934, Josef Velenovský published in Monogr. Discom. Bohem. vol.35 on page 289, a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of fungi within the Hyaloscyphaceae family, '' Pilatia'' which was named in his honour. In 1936, he wrote with Dr Charles Kavina - 'Atlas des champignons de l'Europe' Pilát died suddenly of cardiac failure in 1974.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilat, Albert 1903 births 1974 deaths Czech mycologists Charles University alumni Czechoslovak botanists