Anton Hansgirg was a Bohemian-born algologist. He attended the Czech University in Prague, where he became a tutor in 1885. From 1892-1903 he served as Professor of Plant Physiology and Systematic Botany at Prague, thereafter residing in Vienna.

Hansgirg was a leading researcher in Czech phycology and made considerable collections of microscopic algae in eastern and south-eastern Europe between 1880 and 1891. He also collected in India in 1895 and Egypt in 1901.

Hansgirg's extensive studies on the algae of Bohemia were set forth in his Prodromus der Algenflora von Böhmen (1888). His Pflanzenbiologische Untersuchungen: nebst algologischen Schluszbemerkungen was published in 1904. Hansgirg also authored many papers in the Sitzungsberichte der Böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften and botanical journals.

Hansgirg died in Vienna, leaving an endowment for the study of botany and astronomy at the University of Prague. The genus Hansgirgia G.B. De Toni was named in his honour.

Sources:
F. Druet, 1956, "Type Specimens of Algae in the Herbarium of Anton Hansgirg, Botanik, 2: 41-59 1918, Nuova Notisaria, 29: 124.