Adam Maurizio
Adam Maurizio was a Swiss botanist, specialist of food technology and cultural history, born 26 September 1862 in Kraków and died 4 March 1941 in Liebefeld near Bern. He gained international recognition for his works on the history of plant food. Biography Adam Maurizio came from a well-known family du canton of Grisons. As did many Swiss citizens in the 19th century, his father emigrated to the Austrian Empire about 1850. He had a confectioner's shop in Kraków. Adam Maurizio was born there in 1862 as a Swiss citizen. He went to the public school in Kraków, but was later excluded due to political problems. From 1883, he resides in Switzerland, where he follows the colleges in Chur and Winterthur. He then studies biological sciences, and particularly botany, from the year 1888 on at the Zürich, Geneva and Bern universities. In 1894, he obtains a thesis of the Bern university on Saprolegnia. At the same time, he obtains his license of secondary teaching. Once his diplomas obtained, Maurizio taught natural sciences, in several schools. In 1896, he becomes research assistant in plant physiology and pathology at the research station of Wädenswil. He dedicates his researches above all to the raw plant materials, bakery and forages. In his works, he constantly benefited from the support of the Berlinese botanist Ludwig Wittmack, whose assistant he was at a time. In 1900, Maurizio becomes assistant in botanical research in the research centre of agricultural chemistry in Zürich. With his already published scientific works, he obtained his habilitation in the Zürich university in 1903 and his venia legendi (right to teach) in technical botany. As a Privatdozent, he gave courses and made him known through many conferences on Swiss agriculture. In Autumn 1907, Maurizio was nominated professor of botany and plant technology at the High technical school of Lemberg (Lvov), where he worked until his retirement in 1923. He spent his first retirement years in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz). In 1927, he was nominated emeritus professor at the Faculty of pharmacy of the Warsaw university. But he could exercise his teaching duties only in a limited way, as he had eye problems. He came back to Switzerland in 1935, where he lived until his death in Liebefeld near Bern. Maurizio's daughter, Anna Maurizio (1900–1993), was an internationally recognised researcher in apiculture, who also lived in Liebefeld. Research fields Soon after his student times, Maurizio changed orientation, shifting from scientific botany to applied botany. From 1900 on, he focused his research activity on the technology and physiology of cereals and their products. Particularly useful to bakery were his experiment results, when he endeavoured to quantify the evaluation of the suitability of wheat flours to bread-making, which had been empirical for long. The first synthesis of his works was published in 1903 under the title "Getreide, Mehl und Brot" (Paul Parey, Berlin). In 1909 followed "Die Müllerei und Bäckerei " and in 1917/199 his two-volume book "Die Nahrungsmittel aus Getreide" (2nd edition 1924/1926). His intensive work on the