Léo Errera

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Léo Errera.jpg

Léo Abraham Errera (born September 4, 1858 in Laeken , † August 6, 1905 in Brussels ) was a Belgian botanist . He worked at the Free University of Brussels from 1883 as an associate professor and from 1890 as a full professor of botany. In addition, he was actively involved in Jewish matters.

Life

Léo Errera was born in 1858 as the son of the banker and Italian consul general Jacques Errera and his wife Marie Oppenheim. The family's ancestors were Italian Sephardi from Venice . Jacques Errera had come to Brussels while working for Bank Oppenheim, where he married Marie Oppenheim in 1857 and settled permanently. Léo Errera's younger brother Paul worked as a professor of constitutional and administrative law and as rector at the Free University of Brussels. His nephew Jacques later became a professor at the Free University of Brussels and was awarded the Francqui Prize for his research in biochemistry .

Errera began studying humanities at the University of Brussels in 1874, but then switched to the natural sciences. His studies took him to the universities in Strasbourg , Bonn and Würzburg . In 1879 he was in the subject Botany doctorate and 1883 habilitation . In the same year he was appointed associate professor and in 1890 full professor of botany at the Free University of Brussels. Errera advocated the creation of laboratories and founded a - at first modest - botany laboratory, which in 1891 moved to today's Rue Botanique / Kruidtuinstraat. After his death, the Botanical Institute was renamed Institut Botanique Léo Errera in his honor . From 1898 Errera belonged to the Belgian Academy of Sciences.

The focus of his research was in the field of plant physiology and general biology. He dealt with the role of glycogen as a reserve carbohydrate of mushrooms, with the role of alkaloids in plants and with the physical laws responsible for the cell shape. From 1902 he published the Recueil de l'Institut Botanique de Bruxelles .

He also published writings against anti-Semitism under the pseudonym “Un vieux juif” (German: “an old Jew”) . In 1893 his book about the Jews in Russia was published, "Les juifs russes: Extermination ou émancipation?" (German title: "The Russian Jews: Annihilation or Liberation?" With a foreword by Theodor Mommsen ). He took part in numerous international conferences on Jewish issues and was associated with the Alliance Israélite Universelle . Politically, he was involved in the liberal party.

Errera died of a cerebral embolism in 1905 at the age of 46. The Errera Channel and Cape Errera in Antarctica are named in his honor.

Publications (selection)

  • Sur le glycogène chez les Basidiomycètes . F. Hayez, Brussels 1886.
  • Les Juifs russes: Extermination ou émancipation? With a foreword by Theodor Mommsen . C. Muquardt, Brussels 1893.
  • Une leçon élémentaire sur le Darwinisme . Lamertin, Brussels 1904.
  • Recueil d'œuvres de Léo Errera . 4 vols. H. Lamertin, Brussels 1908–1910.

literature

  • Salomon Wininger: Great Jewish National Biography with more than 8000 biographies of well-known Jewish men and women from all times and countries. A reference work for the Jewish people and their friends. Vol. 2, Cernăuți 1926/1927.
  • Encyclopaedia Judaica. Judaism in the past and present. , Vol. 6, Eschkol, Berlin 1930.
  • The universal Jewish encyclopedia in ten volumes . Vol. 4, New York 1948.
  • Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique: Annuaire . Vol. 68, Brussels 1908.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Notwithstanding, 1857 is given as the year of birth in Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique: Annuaire . Vol. 68, Brussels 1908.
  2. ↑ http://digitheque.ulb.ac.be , last accessed: April 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ http://digitheque.ulb.ac.be , last accessed: April 11, 2011.
  4. ↑ http://digitheque.ulb.ac.be , last accessed: April 11, 2011.
  5. ^ Entry on Léo Errera in Encyclopaedia Judaica . Vol. 6, Jerusalem 1971.
  6. ^ Entry on Léo Errera in Encyclopaedia Judaica . Vol. 6, Jerusalem 1971.
  7. ↑ http://digitheque.ulb.ac.be , last accessed: April 11, 2011.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Errera, Léo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Errera, Léo Abraham (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian botanist
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Laeken , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1905
Place of death Brussels , Belgium