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Konrad Walter Gams (9 August 1934 – 9 April 2017) was an Austrian mycologist. He worked as a scientist for his entire career at the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute) in the Netherlands. He served in the international authority on classification of fungi, the Special Committee on Fungi and Lichens (renamed Nomenclatural Committee for Fungi), from which he contributed to the development of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants. Some species of fungi he identified became sources of pharmaceutical drugs such as cephalosporin C (antibiotic) from Sarocladium strictum and Acremonium chrysogenum, and ciclosporin (immunosuppressant) from Tolypocladium inflatum.
In 1961, Gams was recruited as a research associate by Klaus Heinz Domsch at the research institute, Biologischen Bundesanstalt für Land-und Forstwirtschaft (Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry) in Kiel-Kitzeberg, Germany. His works with Domsch on fungal diversity was documented in several books and research articles, including two monumental monographs, Fungi in Agricultural Soils (1971, original in German in 1970) and Compendium of Soil Fungi (in two volumes, first published in 1980). Together they discovered novel fungal species such as Paraphaeosphaeria sporulosa and Podila ( Mortierella) epigama. Gams left Biologischen Bundesanstalt to join the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures at Baarn (renamed as Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute and relocated at Utrecht) in the Netherlands. He worked there until his retirement in 1999.
Since 1984, Gams became a permanent member of the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi (a part of the International Botanical Congress) that maintains the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants. He served as the committee's secretary for several years. He published over 300 publications, including six books, created one new order, 10 new families, 57 generic names, and 622 species epithets. Three genera and 39 species were named after him.
Among Gams's discoveries of fungal species, Acremonium chrysogenum, Sarocladium strictum, and Tolypocladium inflatum become important in pharmceutical science and industry as they are sources of clinical drugs. Acremonium chrysogenum and Sarocladium strictum produced cephalosporin C, one of the most widely used antibiotics, and which in turn is the source several related cephalosporins. Tolypocladium inflatum is the source of ciclosporin A, which is used as immunosuppressant and is approved for use in atopic dermatitis in dogs and allergic dermatitis in cats.
Gams founded a charity programme called "Studienstiftung mykologische Systematik und Ökologie" in 1995 for educational funding of young mycologists, particularly from poor backgrounds. The foundation is now administered by the Deutschsprachige Mykologische Gesellschaft (German Mycological Society).
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