Swedish phycologist at the University of Lund. J. Harald Kylin was interested in the taxonomy of the red algae, but also studied the marine algae of the Scandinavian coast in general, its biochemistry and its ecology.

Born as Johan Harald Olsson near Gothenburg, his father changed their family name to Kylin when Harald was at high school because he considered Olsson to be too common. Graduating from the University of Uppsala with an MSc in 1901, he went on to gain a Licentiate in Philosophy in 1905 and in 1907 was named a docent at the university after defending a phycological thesis. In the late 1910s he gained employment at the University of Lund as a professor of botany and remained there until his retirement in 1944. Kylin also conducted much of his research at the Kristineberg Zoological Station which he visited during numerous summer holidays.

As a taxonomist Kylin was interested in the Rhodophyta (red algae) orders Gigartinales and Rhodymeniales, as well as the family Delesseriaceae. He was responsible for the Rhodophyta section of K. Linsbauer and G. Tischler's Handbuch der Pflanzenanatomie (1922) and A. Engler and K.A.E. Prantl's Natürliche Pflanzenfamilien (1887-1915). Kylin also produced monographs for several groups of brown algae (Phaeophyceae), including the order Fucales and the Chordariaceae family.

Sources:
F.E. Fritsch, 1950, "Prof. Johan Harald Kylin", Nature, 165(4198): 588
R.E. Lee, 2008, Phycology: 131.