Fernando Altamirano

Who was Fernando Altamirano?

Fernando Altamirano was a Mexican physician, botanist and naturalist. He was born in Aculco, studied in Querétaro, and died in Mexico City. Altamirano was the founder and the director of the National Medical Institute of Mexico from 1888 to 1908.

He published more than 250 papers on pharmacology of Mexican plants and on physiology. He was also interested in the industrial uses of Mexican plants.

Altamirano collaborated with many internationally recognized botanist of the period, like Joseph Nelson Rose, Cyrus Pringle, George Russell Shaw and Edward Janczewski.

At least one genus and nine species of plants and animals were named after him, many of them by Joseph Nelson Rose.