Karel Bernard Boedijn

Karel Bernard Boedijn (29 June 1893 – 29 August 1964) was a Dutch botanist and mycologist who made significant contributions to the study of tropical fungi in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). After earning his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1925, he spent three decades in Southeast Asia as a professor and researcher, surviving Japanese internment during World War II when he identified medicinal plants for fellow prisoners. His prolific output of more than 80 scientific papers—covering diverse fungal groups from slime moulds to basidiomycetes and featuring his meticulous camera lucida illustrations—collectively formed what colleague Marinus Anton Donk described as "an unequalled fund of information on the mycology of Indonesia".

Early life and education

Boedijn spent his childhood in Amsterdam, where weekend excursions into the surrounding countryside fostered a lifelong passion for studying plants and fungi. After completing his primary and secondary schooling, he worked in a corn trade office, devoting his free time to botanical observation. The upheaval of the First World War cost him this position and led him to contemplate careers in both painting and biology. Ultimately, an appointment as private assistant to professor Hugo de Vries proved decisive, enabling him to enrol at the University of Amsterdam. He completed his studies cum laude in 1925 with a doctoral thesis on chromosome mutations in Oenothera lamarckiana.