Eduard Baudyš (1886–1968) Eduard was born in Hořice in the Jičín region. He is one of the founding figures of Czech-language mycology and phytopathology. After his studies and early career in Prague, he moved to Brno to the newly founded University of Agriculture (now Mendel University), where he worked for most of his active life.

After graduation Eduard Baudyš began to build a scientific career at his alma mater, the Czech Technical University in Prague. Here he worked in the departments of botany and zoology from 1907 to 1920. In addition, he worked in Sarajevo (which was then also part of the Habsburg monarchy) between 1913 and 1915. In 1917 he successfully habilitated in the field of phytopathology. It seems unusual to us today that biology should be practiced at a technical university. At the time, however, some departments of this school were also involved in natural sciences in the broad sense, including agricultural studies. The Czech University of Agriculture in Prague was founded only in 1952.

From the beginning of his scientific career, Baudyš was a highly published scientist. He wrote scientific studies and popularization articles. In addition to phytopathology, his areas of interest included mycology, entomology, agricultural research and landscape conservation. Key works from the beginning of his scientific career include publications on the overwintering of parasitic corn rust fungi (order Uredinales) and also on the wheat smut fungi (class Ustilaginomycetes).

In 1920, he left Prague for Brno to teach at the newly established University of Agriculture, founded a year earlier. Here he gradually worked his way up and became the head of the Institute of Agricultural Phytopathology and Professor. His research topics included, for example, insects forming hyphae (neoplasms) on plants. He was also the head of the phytopathology section of the Agricultural Research Institute in Brno and a member of scientific societies in Czechoslovakia and abroad, such as the Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences or the Societas Linnéenain Lyon.

Keywords: botany; entomology; plant physiology; microbiology; mycology; parasitology; plant diseases; plant pathology/phytopathology; parasitology; mycology