Sanford Myron Zeller was an American mycologist. Born in Coldwater, Michigan

Coldwater, Michigan

Coldwater is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,945. It is the county seat of Branch County....

, Zeller was educated at Lawrence College in Wisconsin, then Greenville College

Greenville College

Greenville College is located in Greenville, Illinois, a small Illinois city, located 45 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri on Interstate 70...

 in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, from which he received a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree in 1909. He earned his doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 in 1917 at Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

, and two years later started a 29-year year stint as a plant pathologist and professor at the Oregon Agricultural Experimental Station in Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis

-Education:* Corvallis High School * Corvallis High School * Corvallis High School -Others:* Cessna 400 Corvalis light aircraft* Corvallis Gazette-Times* Corvallis Knights, baseball team* Corvallis Municipal Airport...

. He published over 150 scientific papers during his career. Zeller specialized in the gasteroid fungi

Gasteroid fungi

The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr. , or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce their spores inside their basidiocarps rather than on an outer surface...

. Independently, he described 3 orders

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

, 9 families

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

, 7 genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

, 81 species, and published 29 new names and combinations, as well as 3 genera, 62 species, and 59 combinations in collaborations with other scientists. Zeller was the associate editor of the scientific journal Phytopathology from 1924 to 1930.

Eponymous taxa

• Aleurodiscus zelleri Burt 1926
• Armillaria zelleri D.E. Stuntz & A.H.Sm. 1949
• Boletellus zelleri
  Boletellus zelleri
  Boletellus zelleri is a species of fungus in the family Boletaceae. The species was transferred to the genus Boletellus in 1959. It has been found in North America and Costa Rica....
  
  (Murrill) Singer, Snell & E.A.Dick 1960
• Boletus zelleri
  Boletus zelleri
  Boletus zelleri, commonly known as Zeller's Bolete, is an edible species of mushroom in the family Boletaceae. First described scientifically by American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill in 1912, the species has been juggled by various authors to several genera, including Boletus, Boletellus,...
  
  (Murrill) Murrill 1912
• Ceriomyces zelleri Murrill 1912
• Craterellus zelleri Burt 1926
• Elasmomyces zellerianus Singer & A.H.Sm. 1960
• Exidia zelleri Lloyd 1920
• Godronia zelleri Seaver 1945
• Macowanites zellerianus (Singer & A.H.Sm.) Trappe, T.Lebel & Castellano 2002
• Polyporus zelleri Murrill 1915
• Rhizopogon zelleri A.H.Sm. 1966
• Russula zelleri Burl. 1936
• Tricholoma zelleri (D.E.Stuntz & A.H.Sm.) Ovrebo & Tylutki 1975
• Xerocomus zelleri (Murrill) Snell 1944
• Zelleromyces
  Zelleromyces
  Zelleromyces is a genus of fungi in the Russulaceae family. It was first described by mycologists Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith in 1960 to contain hypogeous fungi with gasteroid fruit bodies that "bleed" latex when they are cut....
  
  Singer & A.H.Sm. 1960