Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem

Scientific Staff

Werner Greuter

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Werner GREUTER,
Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
Phone: (+4930) 838-50132 or 8316010, Fax: (+4930)  838-50218, E-mail: w.greuter@bgbm.org.

Main functions:

  • Professor emeritus, Fachbereich Biologie, Free University of Berlin.
  • Secretary general, Organization for the Phyto-Taxonomic Investigation of the Mediterranean Area (OPTIMA).
  • Council member, International Organization for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (IOSEB).
  • Vice-President, International Foundation "Pro Herbario Mediterraneo"
  • Editor, Med-Checklist.
  • Editor, OPTIMA Newsletter: book reviews section
  • Co-editor: Flora de la República de Cuba (with R. G. Rankin Rodríguez)
  • Co-editor: Flora Mediterranea, Bocconea (with F. M. Raimondo).

Curriculum:
Born in Genova (Italy), as Swiss national, on 27 Feb 1938. Schools in Bellinzona and Winterthur (Switzerland), University studies in Zürich (PhD 1972). 1965-78 assistant curator, then curator and senior curator, Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève (habil. Université de Genève, 1975); 1972-4 on part-time leave as Scientific Director, Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifisia (Greece). First Director, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, 1978-2008.

Committee memberships and functions (current):

  • General Committee on Botanical Nomenclature, Member.
  • IUBS/CODATA Project "Species 2000", Advisory Committee.
  • International Organization for Plant Information, Council.
  • Missouri Botanical Garden, Honorary Trustee
  • Euro+Med PlantBase (Project Sisyphus), Steering Committee, Senior Adviser; Editorial Committee, Secretary.
  • Committee for Mapping the Flora of Europe, Adviser.
  • OPTIMA Publications Commission, Member.
  • OPTIMA Herbarium Mediterraneum Commission, Member.
  • Scientific Committee, International Foundation "Pro Herbario Mediterraneo", Member.
  • Wilhelm-Pfeffer-Stiftung der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft e.V., Member of Council
  • Flora of Southern Africa, Editorial Board Member.
  • Journals: Allionia, Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali, Biogeographia, Boissiera, Candollea, Journal of Biological Research, Lazaroa, Lejeunia, Phytologia Balcanica, Plant Biosystems, Polish Botanical Journal, Webbia, Willdenowia, Member of the editorial or advisory boards.

Awards:

  • OPTIMA Gold Medal, 1998.
  • Theophrastus Medal of Honour of the Hellenic Botanical Society, 2000
  • Honorary Professorship (Categoría Docente Especial de Profesor Invitado), Universidad de La Habana, 2004

Note:
The above Distinguished Services Award was received, as a pleasant surprise, on 29 July 1999 at the IAPT Dinner ahead of the XVI International Botanical Congress in St Louis, Missouri. It features three very rare members of the flora of Crete: Hypericum amblycalyx, Centaurea poculatoris, and Androcymbium rechingeri.

Memberships in scientific societies:

  • Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Classe des Sciences, Section des Sciences Naturelles, Membre Associé.
  • Bulgarian Botanical Society, Foreign Member.
  • Linnean Society of London, Fellow.
  • Royal Physiographical Society of Lund, Elected Member.
  • Russian Botanical Society, Honorary Member.
  • Société Botanique de Genève, Honorary Member.
  • Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique, Honorary Member.
  • Greek Botanical Society, Honorary Member.
  • World Innovation Foundation, Fellow.
  • Association pour l'Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale.
  • Basler Botanische Gesellschaft.
  • Bayerische Botanische Gesellschaft.
  • Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft.
  • Botanischer Verein von Berlin und Brandenburg.
  • Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft.
  • Gesellschaft für biologische Systematik.
  • Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature.
  • International Association for Plant Taxonomy.
  • International Organization of Plant Biosystematists.
  • International Organization for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology.
  • Organization for the Phyto-Taxonomic Investigation of the Mediterranean Area.
  • Regensburgische Botanische Gesellschaft.
  • Schweizerische Akademie der Naturwissenschaften.
  • Schweizerische Botanische Gesellschaft.
  • Schweizerischer Bund für Naturschutz.
  • Société de Biogéographie.
  • Société Botanique de France.
  • Volksbund Naturschutz.

Research interests:

  • Taxonomy and biogeography of vascular plants of Mediterranean areas, especially Greece, as well as the Caribbean.
  • Compositae, Caryophyllaceae, Turneraceae.
  • Inventorying and monitoring of plant biodiversity.
  • Bionomenclature, especially botanical nomenclature.
  • Assembling, processing and networking of botanical information.
  • Management of live and preserved botanical collections.
Research projects:
  • Med-Checklist: a critical inventory of vascular plants of the circum-mediterranean countries (with the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève; sponsored by OPTIMA); vol. 2 (Compositae).
  • Compositae of Europe, a synonymic checklist. Part of the international project Euro+Med Plant Base. [Electronic online database, University of Reading.] 
  • Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae and Turneraceae. Treatments for the Flora de la República de Cuba.
  • Pteridophyta of the Iranian Highlands (with W. Rechinger, Wien).
  • Harmonisation of biological nomenclature (sponsored by IUBS and IUMS). BioCode published as draft.
  • Revision of Greek species of Alkanna (Boraginaceae) (PhD thesis, A. Vasiliou).
  • Taxonomic monograph of Saussurea subg. Amphilaena (Compositae) (PhD thesis, E. von Raab-Straube).
  • Phylogeny of Old-World Capparoideae (Capparaceae) (PhD thesis, K. Rabe; co-supervisor Dr N. Kilian).
  • Mexican diatoms as biological indicators for environmental management (PhD thesis, N. Abarca; co-supervisor Dr R. Jahn).
  • Character evolution in the genus Crepis (Compositae) (PhD thesis, N. Enke; co-supervisor Dr B. Gemeinholzer).
  • Taxonomy and phylogeny of Smilax (Smilacaceae) in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (PhD thesis, L. Ferrufino; co-supervisor Prof. W. Berendsohn).
Click here for selected publications.
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