Voth, Paul D

Paul Dirks Voth was a University of Chicago alumni (S.M. 1930, Ph.D. 1933) and faculty member of the Department of Botany. Born in Gotebo, Oklahoma, on June 12, 1905, Voth was raised in Mennonite communities. He graduated from Bethel College in 1929, and studied at the Rocky Mountain Biological Station in Crested Butte, Colorado, pursuing graduate study in botany at University of Chicago.

Voth was known for his research on the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, working with his students to determine requirements for nutrition and cultivation of this species. He was also particularly interested in lichens and Hemerocallis (daylilies). He traveled widely for both teaching and research purposes: In 1938, his family traveled to Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Zone, where he conducted an intensive study of tropical vegetation. In 1951, he traveled to the Arctic Research Laboratory in Point Barrow, Alaska, where he researched plants growing in permanently frozen substrate.

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