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

Scientific staff

  Walter G. Berendsohn

  Photo: David Ausserhofer / FU Berlin


Contact: 

Prof. Dr. Walter G. BERENDSOHN,
Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
Phone: (+4930) 838-50143, Fax (+4930) 841729-43, Email: w.berendsohn [at] bgbm.org.

Functions:

Director and Professor
Head, Department of Biodiversity Informatics and Laboratories.

Curriculum:

Studies of Biology at the University of Hamburg, University of the West Indies (Mona) and the Free University of Berlin, in 1985 diploma in Biology (thesis on "Physiological, Morphological and Yield Characteristics of the Winged Bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus). 1983 to 1986 consultant, 1987 to 1990 research director of the Jardín Botánico La Laguna in El Salvador, C.A.  1990 doctorate from the FU Berlin ("The arboreal vegetation of the Laderas de La Laguna, a neotropical forest fragment in El Salvador - A computer aided study"). 1990 Curator; 1991 Senior Curator at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Head, Electronic Data Processing and Documentation; 1998 Head, Dept. of Biodiversity Informatics and Laboratories, 2000 Director and Professor.

Committee membership:

  • German GBIF [Global Biodiversity Information Facility] node coordinator's group (Speaker, August 2001, last renewed 2008)
  • GBIF Governing Board (German delegate, March 2001)
    Task Group on the Global Strategy and Action Plan for the Digitisation of Natural History Collections (Chair, Oct. 2008)
  • Biodiversity Information Standards - TDWG [IUBS Commission for Taxonomic Databases], Task group for the ABCD Standard (Chair, Oct. 1995)
  • DNFS [Direktorenkonferenz der Naturhistorischen Forschungssammlungen Deutschlands] (deputy member)
  • CETAF [Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities] (deputy member, BioCASE representative) 
  • IOPI Species Plantarum Project Steering Committee (member).
  • SMEBD (Society for the management of European biodiversity data) Council (Member, Sept. 2004)

Memberships in scientific societies:

  • International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT)
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie (DGTÖ)
  • Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik (GfBS)

Current involvement in collaborative projects

  • BioCASE (initiative; co-ordinator)
  • Dendroflora of El Salvador (project lead) 
  • EDIT (WP5 lead)
  • Global Plant Initiative (BGBM project lead)
  • Life Watch (WP5 lead)
  • PESI (WP5 lead)
  • SYNTHESYS (Networking Activity D, lead)
    SYNTHESYS 2 (Networking Activity 2, lead)
  • I4Life (WP10 lead)
  • ViBRANT (WP2 & 4)

Research interests:

  • Flora and vegetation of El Salvador, Central America (particularly dendroflora)
  • Biodiversity Informatics, particularly information modelling, networking, taxon concepts, and biological collections

List of publications

 

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