Isaac-Bénédict Prévost

Isaac-Bénédict Prévost (7 August 1755 – 8 June 1819) was a Swiss Protestant theologian and naturalist who was one of the first to identify fungal infection of plants and to find treatments to avoid them.

In 1807 he identified bunt on wheat as being caused by fungi and suggested that it could be controlled by treating the seeds with copper sulphate.

He made microscope observations on the germination of the spores of the fungus which was later called Tilletia caries.

[2] He determined that the spores needed humidity but dismissed the idea that the disease itself was caused by climatic factors as was then believed.

[3] In 1810 he became professor of philosophy at the Faculte de Theologie Protestante, a position he obtained with a recommendation of Marc-Auguste Pictet who wrote to Georges Cuvier.