Hugo Marie de Vries was a Dutch botanist and geneticist who studied mutations in plant physiology and furthered the work of Gregor Mendel on the laws of heredity. The foremost botanist of his time, his theories provided the impetus for Charles Darwin's work on evolution.

De Vries was born on February 16, 1848 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, the son of a Dutch Prime Minister. He studied medicine at Heidelberg and Leiden, graduating in 1870. De Vries taught at the newly established University of Amsterdam from 1871 until 1875 and became the first lecturer in plant physiology in 1877 following a brief period working with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture in Wurzburg from 1875 until 1877. He was made an assistant professor of botany in 1878 and a full professor in 1881 and taught at the University of Amsterdam until his retirement in 1918. Awarded eleven honorary degrees, he actively contributed to scientific research until he died on May 21, 1935 near...