Arthur Henry Reginald Buller, (19 August 1874 – 3 July 1944) was a British-Canadian mycologist. He is mainly known as a researcher of

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

, especially wheat rust.

Academic career

Born in

Moseley Moseley ( ') is an affluent suburb in south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. It is located within the eponymous Moseley ward of the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley (UK Parliament constituency), Hall Green and ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England, he was educated at Queen's College, Taunton. He then studied at Mason College, which later became part of the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, (B.Sc. in 1896), the University of Leipzig (Ph.D.), and the University of Munich. He was awarded a D.Sc. by the

. He worked briefly for the Naples Zoological Station. From 1901 to 1904, he was a lecturer in Botany at the

. He came to Canada in 1904, founded the Botany Department and was the first Professor of Botany and Geology at the University of Manitoba, and served as Head of the Botany Department until his retirement in 1936. His book ''Essays on Wheat'' (Macmillan, 1919) deals with the early history of wheat-growing in Manitoba, wheat-growing in western Canada, the discovery and introduction of Marquis wheat, the origin of the wheat varieties Red Bobs and Kitchener, and Palestine's wild wheat. He wrote a 7-volume series ''Researches on Fungi'' published in 6 volumes from 1909 to 1934 with the 7th volume published posthumously in 1950.

Poetry

He also wrote

limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

s, some of which were published in '' Punch'', including this one on Einstein's special theory of relativity:

Honours

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 1909, and became its President in 1927. He was the President of the British Mycological Society in 1914. In 1929, he was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Flavelle Medal. In 1937, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS). He was a life member of the Mycological Society of America. He was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Saskatchewan,

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

, University of Manitoba, and

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. The Buller Building at the University of Manitoba, built in 1932, is named in his honour.

References

*Goldsborough, Gordon. Reginald Buller: The Poet-Scientist of Mushroom City. ''Manitoba History'' Number 47, Spring/Summer 2004

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buller, Arthur 1874 births 1944 deaths People from Moseley British mycologists 20th-century British botanists 20th-century Canadian botanists Canadian mycologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society English emigrants to Canada Royal Medal winners Academic staff of the University of Manitoba People educated at Queen's College, Taunton Alumni of the University of Birmingham Academics of the University of Birmingham Canadian fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the British Mycological Society