Hugh Iltis

Who is Hugh Iltis?

Hugh Hellmut Iltis is Professor Emeritus of Botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is best known for his discoveries in the domestication of corn.

Raised in Czechoslovakia, Iltis left Europe as a refugee just weeks prior to Nazi invasion of the country in March 1939. His father, Hugo Iltis, was a teacher at the Brno Gymnasium, a botanist and geneticist, and a vocal opponent of Nazi eugenics. He was the biographer of Gregor Mendel.

Iltis served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, initially in an artillery unit. He was later transferred to an intelligence unit. After the war, Iltis was posted in Germany, where he sorted through piles of documents left by the Nazis, uncovering evidence of German war crimes.

Iltis was primarily trained in plant systematics and taxonomy with a focus on the families Cleomaceae and Capparaceae. While at the University of Arkansas from 1952–55, Iltis completed a study of the Capparaceae of Nevada. Later publications formed a series, Studies in the Capparaceae, which includes 24 publications, including newly described species and genera. An associated series of papers describes research in the family Cleomaceae, which was separated from the Capparaceae.