Mitsutaro Shirai

Mitsutaro Shirai 1863-1932.

Mitsutaro Shirai (白井 光太郎, Shirai Mitsutarō^?, 1863-1932) was a Japanese plant pathologist. He was the first president of the Phytopathology Society of Japan and emeritus professor of plant pathology, College of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo.

He had many cooperation with German mycologist P. Hennings in fungi identification. In commemoration of his contribution in the area, two fungi genera were named after his family name, i.e. Shiraia P. Henn. and Shiraiella Hara and more than a dozen of species were named after him. He also published about 50 fungi species, either by himself or cooperated with other mycologists. He did great contribution to Japanese mycology and plant pathology at his time. ^[1]

He had a private collection of Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu), which now is in the Omori Collection of the Kyoto Botanical Garden.

Life

Shirai was born in Edo (now Tokyo). He began his professional career as teacher of forest botany and plant pathology in the University of Tokyo in 1886. From 1906 to 1925, he occupied the first term of professor at Laboratory of Plant Pathology in this university. He died on May 30, 1932.^[2]

The standard author abbreviation Shirai is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[3]

References

1. ^ Suematsu, N. (1962). "To the hundredth birthday of Dr. Mitsutaro Shirai, the first President of the Phytopathological Society of Japan". Annals of the Phytopathological Society of Japan 27 (3): 99–101. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110002716560/. 
2. ^ Briggs, L.J. (1932). "Obituary". Science 76 (1959): 48. doi:10.1126/science.76.1959.48. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/76/1959/48.pdf. 
3. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

Persondata
Name	Shirai, Mitsutaro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1863
Place of birth
Date of death	1932
Place of death