Hugh Iltis

Hugh Hellmut Iltis (b. April 7, 1925 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) is Professor Emeritus of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is best known for his discoveries in the genetics of corn (maize). Dr. Iltis has also had a life-long interest in the systematics and taxonomy of the plant families Cleomaceae and Capparaceae. As a botanist, Iltis served as the Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium.

Iltis proved that domestic corn differs by a small number of mutations from a species of teosinte, a family of grasses that grows wild at a few sites in western Mexico. [cite journal| title=From teosinte to maize: The catastrophic sexual transmutation | volume=222 | journal=Science | year=1983 | author=Iltis, Hugh H. | pages=886–894| doi=10.1126/science.222.4626.886| pmid=17738466] It was once believed that the original wild corn was extinct. Other researchers have since recreated some of the intermediate steps in the evolution of domestic corn from its wild predecessor, and have demonstrated how Native Mexicans may have selected natural hybrids. However, some controversy remains about what steps separate modern domestic corn from teosinte, its wild cousin.

Iltis's discovery is of great importance economically because he identified a source of genetic variability that could be used by plant breeders. Some species of teosinte are critically endangered, and all have a very limited range. Through his efforts, Iltis convinced the government of Mexico to devote resources to conservation of habitat for wild teosinte.

Another of Iltis's discoveries occurred in 1962, while he and Don Ugent were on a plant collecting expedition in Peru. Iltis spotted a wild tomato that had never been classified by taxonimists before, which he noted as No. 832. He sent samples and seeds to a variety of specialists in the field, and collected specimens for several herbariums. This wild tomato turned out to be a new species of tomato with much higher sugar and solids content than domestically grown tomatoes. As a source for hybridization with domestic tomatoes, it has been used both to improve the flavor of tomatoes and to boost solids content. [cite journal| title=Discovery of No. 832: An essay in defense of the National Science Foundation | volume=3 | journal=Desert Plants | year=1982 | author=Iltis, Hugh H. | pages=175–192]

Iltis was born in Czechoslovakia, and left Europe as a refugee when the country was invaded by the Nazis, before World War II. He is an unwavering and uncompromising environmentalist and conservationist, a champion of preserving endangered and threatened habitats to preserve biodiversity.

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. [Turda M and PJ Weindling, eds. 2007. "Blood and Homeland": Eugenics and racial nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe 1900-1940. Budapest; NY: Central European University Press. ]

Hugh Iltis served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, in an artillery unit. Later he was transferred to an intelligence unit. After the end of the war, Iltis was posted in Germany, where he sorted through piles of documents left by the Nazis. Documents he uncovered included evidence of Nazi atrocities.

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.

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