Meinhard Michael Moser

Meinhard Michael Moser was an Austrian mycologist. His work principally concerned the taxonomy, chemistry, and toxicity of the gilled mushrooms, especially those of the genus Cortinarius. He described around 500 new taxa, and numerous fungal taxa have been named in his honour. He was the inaugural head of the first Institute of Microbiology in Austria.

About Meinhard Michael Moser in brief

Summary Meinhard Michael MoserMeinhard Michael Moser was an Austrian mycologist. His work principally concerned the taxonomy, chemistry, and toxicity of the gilled mushrooms, especially those of the genus Cortinarius. His contributions to the Kleine Kryptogamenflora von Mitteleuropa series of mycological guidebooks were well regarded and widely used. Moser described around 500 new taxa, and numerous fungal taxa have been named in his honour. He was the inaugural head of the first Institute of Microbiology in Austria. He died in 2002, and his scientific studies continued until his death in 2002. His first publication came in 1949; in 1949 he published a journal, Morchella, under the supervision of the botanist Arthur Pisekkk. During his time at the University of Innsbruck, he became friends with prominent German mycologists, and was keen to rejoin the German Mycological Society. He also became a member of both the Société de Mycologique de France and the Mycology Society of France. His interest in natural sciences was cultivated from a young age by his mother, Emil Johann Lambert Heinricher. In 1942, aged 19, Moser enrolled in botany, zoology, geology, physics, and chemistry. His university career began during World War II and was soon interrupted by military service. In 1945 he was captured in Czechoslovakia by Soviet soldiers and made a prisoner of war.

After completing his doctorate in 1950, he worked in England for six months, researching the symbiotic relationships between plants and fungi. Upon his return to Austria, he joined the Federal Forestry Research Institute, where he remained until 1968, conducting influential research on the use of mycorrhizal fungi in reforestation. He began lecturing in 1956, and in 1972 became the first head of the Institute of Microbiology in Austria. In 1975 he co-authored a monograph on the genus Phlegmacium, and a 1975 study of members of Cortinius, Dermocybe, and Stephanopus in South America. He continued lecturing until his retirement in 1991, and continued to collect and identify mushrooms until he retired in 2000. His earliest paintings of mushrooms date to 1935, when he was 11 years old. In 1952 he published his first publication in Massen der Gattung von Waldbrandflächen. In 1953 he published the Blätter- und Bauchpilze, which became known as simply \”Moser\”, which saw several editions in both the original German and in translation. In 1956 he became an authorized mushroom controller and instructor. In 1957 he became the inaugural head of the Institution of Microbiology of Austria. His first publication in 1949 was published in Morchella von Massen under the supervision of the botanist Arthur Piseskk in France.