Belgian botanist and conservationist. Jean Massart was a professor at the University of Brussels and curator of the Jardin botanique de l'État from 1902-1906. He was born and studied in Brussels, earning his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1894. He thereafter became a professor there and progressed from early research on general biological problems such as pathologic infection by micro-organisms to more specialised botanical work. After being appointed curator at the university botanic gardens he created new planting designs based on ethology and phylogeny, but was forced to give up his role at the gardens when his teaching workload increased following the death of his colleague, Léo Errera.
Massart was a leading light in Belgian botany, producing for example the phytogeographical work "Esquisse de la géographie botanique de la Belgique" (1910) among many other works on the native flora of the country. His long-term study of the geobotany of Belgium, including the recording of landscapes in detailed photographs and observations on the impact of man on the landscape, effectively made him the father of nature conservation in the country.
In addition to his work in Belgium, Massart conducted fieldwork abroad on two occasions, collecting plants in Java and Sumatra in 1894-1895, and leading an expedition to Brazil in 1922-1923 (he did not return with any herbarium specimens from this trip, though). The Brazil expedition had a negative effect on his health, which was then tested further by an extensive lecture tour of the United States. Returning to Belgium, Massart moved to the village of Houx to recuperate, but instead deteriorated and died there suddenly in August 1925. He had been elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1905. The Jean Massart Experimental Garden at the Brussels Université Libre commemorates him.
Sources:
1926, Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 29: 308
1926, Bulletin de la Société royale de botanique de Belgique, 59: 7-10
1925, "Obituary. Jean Massart", Nature, 116: 790-791.
