Josiah Lincoln Lowe


Josiah Lincoln Lowe was an American mycologist who specialized in the study of polypores. Lowe was born in Hopewell, New Jersey, where he attended primary school and high school. In 1927, he graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and he received a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1938, with Calvin H. Kauffman and Edwin Butterworth Mains as his main academic supervisors. His doctoral thesis was entitled The genus Lecidea in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. That year, he started his academic career at the College of Forestry, a position he held for almost 40 years. He retired in 1975 and became an emeritus professor. Lowe was the president of the Mycological Society of America in 1960. In the 1980s, Lowe was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease; he died in Syracuse.
Several fungal taxa have been named in his honor, including the species Leptoporus lowei Pilát, Lindtneria lowei M. J. Larsen, Ploioderma lowei Czabator, and Polyporus lowei Burdsall & Lombard, and the genera Loweporus J. E. Wright, Loweomyces Jülich.