Gustav Wilhelm Körber

Gustav Wilhelm Körber (10 January 1817, Hirschberg – 27 January 1885, Breslau) was a German lichenologist.
He studied natural sciences in Breslau and Berlin, obtaining his PhD in 1839 with the thesis De gonidiis lichenum. After graduation, he served as an instructor at the “Elisabethanum” in Breslau, and from 1862, worked as a private teacher. In 1873 he became an associate professor at the University of Breslau.
Best known for his investigations of lichen species native to Silesia, he also examined specimens found in central and southeastern Europe as well as lichen collected from Mediterranean and Arctic regions. Körber is credited with introducing the term muriform in an 1855 publication to describe the distinctive multi-chambered spores of the lichen genera Rhizocarpon and Umbilicaria, as well as the terms polari-dyblastae and amphithecium in later publications. He published the exsiccata Lichenes selecti Germanici. The genera Koerberia (within the Placynthiaceae family) and Koerberiella (in the Lecideaceae family) are named after him.