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Willem Piso (in Dutch Willem Pies, in Latin Gulielmus Piso,Genitive case "Gulielmi Pisonis" also called Guilherme Piso in Portuguese) (1611 in Leiden – 28 November 1678 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch physician and naturalist who participated as an expedition doctor in Dutch Brazil from 1637 – 1644, sponsored by count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen and the Dutch West India Company. Piso became one of the founders of tropical medicine.
Together with Georg Marcgrave, and originally published by Joannes de Laet, Piso wrote the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), an important early Western insight into Brazilian flora and fauna. He also published as part of this work four parts titled De medicina Brasiliense in which he examined tropical diseases and indigenous therapies (including the use of ipecacuanha-root and leaves of the Pilocarpus), Piso collected plants and animals in Brazil. In 1658, he published another work, which is a second edition of the Historia titled De Indiae Utriusque re naturali et medica. He was the sole author of this and he is said to have tried to undermine Markgraf's work, and many careless errors, leading to criticism from Markgraf's brother and even Linnaeus.
He is buried near Rembrandt in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.
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