Stanley John Hughes (1918–2019) was a Canadian scientist who is known throughout the global field of mycology for developing and introducing a precise and meticulous system for classifying fungi that is still used today.
[4] These national reference collections help scientists identify fungi and support research to control fungal pathogens and parasites that affect Canadian agricultural production.
[4] Quite often when a disease inflicts Canadian agriculture these collections are vital in properly identifying the pathogen, detailing its characteristics, and helping scientists develop diagnostic tools and control methods.
With the publication of this one paper, an entire field was transformed as scientists around the world quickly adapted the new methods and tools to segregate and classify moulds.
[citation needed] Five years after “Hughes 1953” his follow-up 1958 scientific paper contained an extensive list of more than 1,000 accepted genera, species and synonymies.
This presented proof that hyphomycetology, the classification of fungi, was now a science and provided a new starting point for the worldwide effort to collect and classify moulds.
[10] Hughes visited several exotic places to collect and study microfungi which resulted in a plethora of over 130 publications, descriptions of hundreds of new genera and species and identification keys to help classify many moulds.
[9][12] On Hughes' 80th birthday in 1998 the Canadian Journal of Botany, where many of his scientific papers were published, included two articles from colleagues paying tribute to his research.