John Eriksson

John Leonard Eriksson (born 26 March 1921 in Hagfors – died 1 June 1995) was a Swedish mycologist. He specialized in crust fungi of the basidiomycetes, collecting in Sweden (especially in Muddus National Park, the Gothenburg region and Värnamo), Finland and Canada. Eriksson was a student of John Axel Nannfeldt and Seth Lundell, and defended his doctoral dissertation Studies in the Heterobasidiomycetes and Homobasidiomycetes-Aphyllophorales of Muddus National Park in Northern Sweden[3] on the wood-associated fungal flora in Muddus National Park at Uppsala University in 1958. The opponent (similar to an external examiner) was the Dutch mycologist Marinus Donk. Eriksson was employed as a senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg in 1961. He received a personal doctorate in 1967 which was transformed into a professorship in 1977. Eriksson retired in 1986. Eriksson supervised several students who would later carry on the crust fungus tradition, including Nils Hallenberg and Karl-Henrik Larsson. Eriksson also had extensive scientific collaborations with Kurt Hjortstam and Leif Ryvarden.