Wilhelm Hofmeister

Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister (18 May 1824 – 12 January 1877) was a German biologist and botanist. He "stands as one of the true giants in the history of biology and belongs in the same pantheon as Darwin and Mendel." Largely self-taught he was the first to study and establish alternation of generations and the details of sexual reproduction in the bryophytes. Provided by Wikipedia