Hannes Hertel

Hannes Hertel is a German lichenologist and taxonomist and was Director of the State Herbarium in Munich, Germany 1992–2004. His specialist areas are the fungi and lichens.

Early life and education Hannes Hertel was born in 1939. His doctorate was awarded in 1967 for work on members of the lichen genus Lecidea that thrive on lime rich rocks and sites. This was undertaken under the guidance of Josef Poelt.

Career He was appointed to an academic post at University of Berlin in 1972 but in 1973 he moved to Munich to take up the post of curator at the State Herbarium in Munich. He became the provisional director from 1985 to 1992 and was then confirmed as Director and remained until his retirement in 2004. His specialist area was the taxonomy of lichens, and especially the genus Lecidea that he had first studied for his doctorate. He and students that he supervised brought order and a critical review of the 1000 accepted and 4000 published names within the genus in the early 1970s. and Lecideaceae exsiccatae.

The State Herbarium in Munich contains the lichen collection of Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold, 100,000 - 150,000 specimens collected in the nineteenth century. Hertel made a particular effort to transcribe the detailed labels from Arnold's handwriting that was difficult to read and ensured this was published so that the collection could be more easily used by others. Hertel was awarded the Acharius Medal for his lifetime's work that has made an outstanding contributions to lichenology in 2008.

Several genera have been named after Hertel, including Hertelidea (2004),