Born 29th February 1936 near Bern, Switzerland, Fritz Hans Schweingruber worked as a teacher until 1965, obtained a PhD in botany from the University of Basel in 1972 (where he also obtained a Professorship in 1976), and started his lifelong career at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf right afterwards. Fritz developed a dendrochronological network across much of the Northern Hemisphere, expanded wood (xylem) science beyond forests, implemented wood anatomical techniques into dendroecology and paleoclimatology, and enthusiastically trained thousands of students, of which hundreds remained actively involved in the still emerging field of tree-ring research. Though Fritz died 7th January 2020 after an extraordinary academic career, his intellectual legacy will continue to inspire scholars around the world.
