William Murrill

William Alphonso Murrill
William Alphonso Murrill
Born	(1869-10-13)October 13, 1869 Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	December 25, 1957(1957-12-25) (aged 88) Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater	Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College at Blacksburg - BSc (1887) Randolph Macon College - B.Sc. (1889), M.A. (1891) Cornell University - PhD (1900)
Known for	Researching Hymenomycetes
Awards	Holland Society of New York - Gold Medal (1923)
Scientific career
Fields	Mycology, Botany
Institutions	Bowling Green Seminary Wesleyan Female Institute DeWitt Clinton High School New York Botanical Garden
Doctoral advisor	G.F. Atkinson
Other academic advisors	L.M. Underwood
Author abbrev. (botany)	Murrill

William Alphonso Murrill (October 13, 1869 – December 25, 1957) was an American mycologist, known for his contributions to the knowledge of the Agaricales and Polyporaceae. In 1904, he became the assistant Curator at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). He, along with the NYBG, founded the journal Mycologia and was its first editor for 16 years. Murrill was known to travel extensively to describe the mycota of Europe and the Americas. He traveled along the East Coast, Pacific Coast, Mexico and the Caribbean. Although Murrill was a very influential person at the NYBG, having worked his way up to become assistant director in 1908, his rather eccentric personality caused problems with his job. He went on annual collecting trips to Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and South America, sometimes, without informing any of his colleagues prior. These trips resulted in a cumulative total of 70,000 specimens, 1,400 of which are deposited in the NYBG.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Murrill might have issued an exsiccata series under the title Polyporaceae of North America.^[6]