Following graduation from the
University of Strasbourg, he worked as a curator at the
Natural History Museum in
Strasbourg, becoming director of the museum in 1839. The museum has a bust of Schimper at the top of the stairs. From 1862 until 1879, he was a professor of geology and
natural history at the
University of Strasbourg. Schimper's contributions to biology were primarily in the specialized fields of
bryology (study of mosses) and
paleobotany (study of plant fossils). He spent considerable time collecting botanical specimens in his travels throughout Europe. Together with
Jean-Baptiste Mougeot,
Antoine Mougeot and
Chrétien Géofroy Nestler he edited three
exsiccatae, among them
Stirpes cryptogamae Vogeso-Rhenanae; quas in Rheni superioris inferiorisque, nec non Vogesorum praefecturis collegerunt (1843-1854). Among his writings was the six-volume
Bryologia Europaea, an epic work that was published between 1836 and 1855. It was co-written with
Philipp Bruch (1781–1847), and it described every species of European
moss known at the time. Schimper also made significant contributions in geology. In 1874, he proposed a new scientific subdivision of
geological time. He called the new epoch the "
Paleocene Era", of which he based on paleobotanical findings from the
Paris Basin. == Honours ==