Wilhelm Philippe Schimper

Wilhelm Philippe Schimper (January 12, 1808 – March 20, 1880, in Lichtenberg) was an Alsatian botanist with French, later German citizenship.

[a] He was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel, but spent his youth in Offwiller, a village at the foot of the Vosges mountain range in Alsace.

He spent considerable time collecting botanical specimens in his travels throughout Europe.

He called the new epoch the "Paleocene Era", of which he based on paleobotanical findings from the Paris Basin.

Schimper was elected as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1862.