Hugo Carl Plaut (12 October 1858 – 17 February 1928) was a German physician, who worked primarily as a bacteriologist and mycologist in human and animal medicine .

He made contributions to the aetiology of the poxviridae family of viruses through his work using the method of Toussaint to produce attenuated vaccine that was therapeutically active against sheepox.

His work was under the supervision of his mentor, Friedrich Anton Zürn (1835-1900),[4] who was professor emeritus of veterinarian sciences at Leipzig University.

In 1888 he became founding director of a small Institute for Mircrobiological Research at what is now the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

[citation needed] Their daughters Carrie (1892-1976) and Rahel Plaut (1894-1993) both became doctors, the latter was married to the historian Hans Liebeschuetz.