Swiss botanist. Born in Schleitheim, in Canton Schaffhouse, Jakob (Jacques) Huber obtained his degree in natural sciences and his teacher's diploma from the University of Basle in 1890. He immediately continued his studies in botany under Charles Flahault at Montpellier, and as a result of this work was awarded a doctorate from Basle in 1892 for his thesis on Chaetophora.
Not long after joining the botanical laboratory of Dr Chodat at the University of Geneva, where he published on algae, Huber was selected by E.A. Goeldi to head the botany section of the Museu Paraense in Brazil. He took up the post in 1895 and in the ensuing years made a series of botanical expeditions in the Amazon Basin, primarily in Pará and its neighbouring states, starting with an excursion in the company of Goeldi to Amapá, Cunany, and other locations along the contested Guyanan border. The next year, in 1896, he collected for the first time on the island of Marajó at the mouth of the Amazon River. He then spent the summer of 1897 collecting along the Rio Capim with Goeldi and the autumn on his own in Ceara. In 1898, accompanied by his friend Dr Marmier, he collected in Ucayali and Huallaga. In 1899 he collected in Santarem and Monte Alegre. With his colleague Dr von Kraatz-Koschlau, a geologist at the Museu, he made an excursion to Salgado and Rio Guama in late 1899 and the following year, Rio Aramâ and eastern Marajó. He returned alone to Marajó in 1902, visited the Indian mission at San Antonio do Prata in 1903, and ended a decade's worth of field work with an excursion to Rio Purus and the lower basin of Rio Acre in 1904.
A number of papers in systematics, phytogeography, and hydrogeography resulted from his extensive plant collecting, including 'Sur les campos de l'Amazone inférieur et leur origine' (Paris, 1900); 'Sur la végétation du Cap Magoany et la côte atlantique de l'Ile de Marajó' (Geneva, 1901), 'Aperçu géographique sur la région Bas-Amazone' (Geneva, 1901), 'Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der brasilianischen Campos' (Berlin, 1902), 'Contribuicâo a geographia physica des Furos de Braves et de parte occidental de Marajó' (Para), and 'La végétation de la vallée du Rio Purús' (Geneva, 1906). Huber also co-authored Eine neue Theorie der Ameisenpflanzen jointly with L Buscalioni (Cassel, 1900), made contributions to Materiaes para a Flora Amazonica, and between 1900 and 1906, initiated and edited the publication Arboretum Aamazonicum. After succeeding Goeldi as director of the Museu in 1907, his research efforts were put to the service of the rubber industry, one of the state's principal sources of revenue. In addition to finding new species in Brazil, he also travelled to centres in Ceylon, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies to study their rubber production methods. He died suddenly of appendicitis in 1914.
Sources:
G. Beauverd, 1914, "Le Docteur, Jacques Huber", Bulletin de la Société de Genève, 3: 91-100.
