Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem

Who was Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem?

Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem was a French botanist born in Baillleul in the département of Nord.

After obtaining his baccalauréat in 1856, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure, and after receiving agrégation, he worked in the laboratory of Louis Pasteur. Here he performed research involving the cultivation of mushrooms. He is credited with creation of the eponymous "Van Tieghem cell", a device mounted on a microscope slide that allows for observing the development of a fungus' mycelium.

In 1864 he earned his doctorate in physical sciences with a thesis titled Recherches sur la fermentation de l'urée et de l'acide hippurique, and two years later obtained a doctorate in natural history. From 1873 to 1886, he taught classes at the École centrale des arts et manufactures, and from 1878 to 1914, was a professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. Within this time period, he was also an instructor at the Institut agronomique in Paris.

In 1871 he became a member of the Société philomathique de Paris, and in 1876 gained membership to the Académie des sciences.