Wilhelm Philippe Schimper (January 12, 1808 - March 20, 1880) was a French botanist who was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel

Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel

Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...

, Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...

, a town near the River Rhine in Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

. He was father of botanist Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper

Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper

Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper was a botanist and phytogeographer who made major contributions in the fields of histology, ecology and plant geography.-Biography:...

 (1856-1901) and cousin to naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 Karl Friedrich Schimper

Karl Friedrich Schimper

Karl Friedrich Schimper was a German naturalist and poet. Born in Mannheim, he was a theology student at Heidelberg University and taught at Munich University. He pioneered research in the field of plant morphology, particularly phyllotaxis...

 (1803-1867) and botanist Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper

Wilhelm Schimper

Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper was a German botanist and naturalist born in Reichenschwand. He was a brother to naturalist Karl Friedrich Schimper....

 (1804-1878).

Following graduation from the University of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

, he was a curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 of the Natural History Museum in Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, becoming director of the museum in 1839. From 1862 until 1879 he was a professor of geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 and natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 at the University of Strasbourg.

Schimper's contributions to biology were mainly in the specialized fields of bryology

Bryology

Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes . Bryophytes were first studied in detail in the 18th century...

 (study of mosses) and paleobotany

Paleobotany

Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany , is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments , and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a...

 (study of plant fossils). He spent considerable time travelling throughout Europe collecting botanical specimens. His best-known written work is the six-volume Bryologia Europaea, which was published between 1836 and 1855. It was co-written with Philipp Bruch

Philipp Bruch

Philipp Bruch was a German pharmacist and bryologist born in Zweibrücken. His father, Johann Christian Bruch was also a pharmacist.He initially worked at a pharmacy in Mainz, and afterwards studied in Marburg and Paris...

 (1781-1847) and it described every species of European moss

Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...

 known at the time.

Schimper also made significant contributions in geology. In 1874 Schimper proposed a scientific subdivision of the Tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...

 Era. He called this new subdivision the Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...

Era, which he based on paleobotanical findings from the Paris Basin.