Robert Bauer (1950 – 8 September 2014) was a German mycologist, specialising in rust (Uredinales) and smut (Ustilaginomycetes) fungi.
Bauer studied Biology at the University of Tübingen during the 1970s, and a particular interest in plants and fungi led to completing his PhD there in 1983, with a doctoral dissertation entitled Experimentell-ontogenetische und karyologische Untersuchungen an Uredinales (Experimental-ontogenetic and karyological studies on Uredinales).
[1] He became adept in the use of electron microscopes and the prerequisite specialised cutting and preparation techniques at a time when ultrastructural study of fungi was still in its infancy.
[1] Bauer produced over 100 publications during his career, during which time he was also strongly involved in teaching, the university's botanic garden and overseeing specialist internships in electron-microscopy.
[1] In 1999, he and Vánky, Begerow & Oberwinkler (fellow botanists), circumscribed in the journal Mycologia, Melaniellaceae which is a family of smut fungi in the division Basidiomycota.