Jean-Henri Humbert


Jean-Henri Humbert was a French botanist born in Paris.
He studied physics, chemistry and natural sciences in Rennes and Paris, and following a scientific excursion to Madagascar, he worked as a university assistant at the faculty of Clermont-Ferrand. In 1919 he was appointed to the chair of botany, subsequently teaching botany classes at the institute of chemistry and industrial technology. In 1922 he relocated to Algiers, where he became chef de travaux to the faculty of sciences. In 1931 he succeeded Henri Lecomte as chair of botany at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris.
Humbert was a member of the Académie des sciences d'outre-mer and the Société botanique de France, serving as its president from 1940 to 1944. He was also a member of the Institut de France and the Société d’Histoire Naturelle de l’Afrique du Nord. From 1951 to 1957 he was a member of the Académie des Sciences.
He has a handful of botanical genera named after him, including Humbertiella from the tribe Hibisceae. He was an editor of the journal .

Written works