Mycologist honoured
23 July 2010
Eminent mycologist and founder member of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Dr Stan Hughes, has received the highest civilian honour for Canadians for his lifetime contribution to the field of mycology.
Dr Hughes, 92, was made a Member of the Order of Canada by the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean. He was particularly commended for his work on the classification of various fungi and moulds and for his mentoring of young scientists.
Born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Dr Hughes worked in the Commonwealth Mycological Institute at Kew before emigrating to Canada in 1952 to work for the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. He is especially celebrated for his work on the taxonomy of sooty moulds and has a clutch of other honours including the Jakob Eriksson Gold Medal of the Swedish Academy of Science and the George Lawson Medal of the Canadian Botanical Association.
Dr Hughes describes himself as one of an 'endangered species' of fungal taxonomists and has donated his collection of 40,000 books, papers and journals to the library of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, where it has become a unique and highly valuable resource for students and researchers.
The catalogue is available online.