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Erik Acharius (10 October 1757, in Gävle – 14 August 1819) was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology" and the famously the last pupil of Linnaeus.

Life
Acharius was born in 1757 to Johan Eric Acharius and Catharina Margaretha Hagtorn in Gävle. He recieved a private education until he was admitted to Gävle Gymnasium in 1770. Later he matriculated at Uppsala University in 1773 were he studied natural history and medicine under Linneaeus and was one of his last students and is known as "Carl Linneaus last diciple". He later worked for the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and completed his medical studies at Lund University in 1782. He was appointed town medical officer in Vadstena in 1785, district medical officer in Östergötland County in 1789, director of the new Vadstena Hospital (which he had initiated) in 1795, and titular professor in 1803. As a cartoonist, Acharius Johan illustrated Peter Westring's work Svenska lafvarne color history (1805) and Carl Peter Thunberg's Flora Capensis.

Married 1) 1787 with Helena Dorotea Scholander, b. 1762, d Apr 22, 1804, daughter of the trader Scholander in Landskrona; 2) 31 Dec. 1804 with Margareta Maria Hoffberg, b. 23 Apr. 1780, daughter of the salpeters director director Gottfrid Hoffberg in Skänninge.

Acharius died 1819

Work in Lichenology
Acharius belonged to the younger generations of Swedish botanists who continued what Linnaeus had left undone. Acharius began the taxonomic classification of the Lichenes and during his life time he classified over 3300 Genrea and species of Lichen. and published several work in this field: Lichenographiae Suecia prodromus (1798), Methodus lichenum (1803), Lichenographia universalis (1810), Synopsis methodica lichenum (1814) and many smaller papers in periodicals.

Publications and Honors
He was a member of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund (1795), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1796), the Linnean Society of London (1801), appointed Knight of the Vasa (1809), and Order and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (1810).

The plant genus Acharia, several plants species (e.g., Rosa acharii and Conferva acharii), and one insect, Tortrix achariana have all been named after Acharius; likewise, the Acharius Medal is awarded for lifetime achievement in lichenology.

The collections of Acharius are distributed over several museums: the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki, which holds the Botanical Museum in Uppsala, the Swedish Museum of Natural History and the Botanical Museum in Lund. His papers are in the Library of Uppsala University.