André Bellemère

André Bellemère (23 September 1927 – 2 June 2014) was a French mycologist and lichenologist whose research on the development and ultrastructure of ascomycete asci and ascomata influenced late 20th-century fungal systematics. A long-serving professor at the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he combined teacher training with laboratory research and helped introduce routine electron microscopy into ascomycete taxonomy. He was also a leading figure in French lichenology as president of the Association française de lichénologie, compiler of extensive bibliographies of lichenological literature, and eponym of several genera and species of lichens and lichenicolous fungi.

Early life and education

Bellemère was born on 23 September 1927 in Triel-sur-Seine, in the French department of Yvelines. He first studied at the École normale primaire in Auteuil, Paris, then continued his secondary education at the Lycée Turgot, where the botanist and mycologist Marius Chadefaud was among his teachers.