Willem Piso

Piso was born in Leiden to church organist Hermann Pies and Cornelia van Liesvelt.

He left for Brazil along with the astronomer Georg Marcgrave and the painters Albert Eckhout and Frans Post.

There, he recommended the consumption of fresh fish, vegetables, and fruits after discovering that soldiers and seamen suffered from physical problems including night blindness resulting from malnutrition.

[3] Together with Georg Marcgrave, and originally published by Joannes de Laet, Piso wrote the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), an important early Western insight into Brazilian flora and fauna.

A minor planet, 11240 Piso, and 2 types of plant genus; Pisonia,[9] and Pisoniella both belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae,[10] are named for him.