Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher (17 April 1763 – 5 or 6 January 1841) was a Swiss

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

and

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 ...

who was a native of the

Republic of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five Municipality, municipalities, and the seat of the governme ...

. He studied theology at Geneva, and from 1795 to 1821 was a pastor at the Church of Saint-Gervais. From 1808 to 1840 he was a professor of church history at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

, and for a number of years he also taught classes in botany. Among his better-known students were botanist

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss people, Swiss botany, botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple ...

(1778-1841), scientist Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth (1767-1823) and Charles-Albert (1798-1849), the future King of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

. Vaucher is remembered for his research involving the developmental history of

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

. In his 1803 treatise ''Histoire des Conferves d'eau douce'', he described the process of

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form *Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change o ...

in certain algae as a distinct sexual process. The phenomena of conjugation is a means of

fertilization Fertilisation or fertilization (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give ...

that takes place in

green algae The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...

such as ''

Spirogyra ''Spirogyra'' (common names include water silk, mermaid's tresses, and blanket weed) is a genus of filamentous charophyte green algae of the order Zygnematales, named for the helical or spiral arrangement of the chloroplasts that is charact ...

''. He is credited for describing the development of the networks that occur in the cells of '' Hydrodictyon'' (water net algae), and for describing the

pyrenoid Pyrenoids are sub-cellular phase-separated micro-compartments found in chloroplasts of many algae,Giordano, M., Beardall, J., & Raven, J. A. (2005). CO2 concentrating mechanisms in algae: mechanisms, environmental modulation, and evolution. ''An ...

of algae. He is honoured in the name of 2 genera of yellow-green algae, '' Vaucheria'', named by

in 1801. As well as '' Vaucheriella'', published by François Benjamin Gaillon in 1833.

Selected publications

''Histoire des conferves d'eau douce''
(1803)
''Histoire physiologique des plantes de l'Europe''
4 volumes (1804) * ''Mémoire sur les seiches du lac de Genève'' (1805)
''Monographie des orobanches''
(1827) * ''Souvenir d'un Pasteur Genevois, ou recueil de sermons'' (1842)

References

* ''Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaucher, Jean Pierre Etienne 1763 births 1841 deaths 18th-century botanists from the Republic of Geneva Botanists from Geneva 19th-century Swiss botanists Swiss Protestant ministers Academic staff of the University of Geneva Phycologists