We bid farewell in silent mourning to our long-time
employee, colleague and friend
Dr. Eckhard von Raab-Straube
who passed away unexpectedly on 8 July 2024.
His sudden, unexpected death has left a painful, deep hole in the BO community and his scientific sphere of activity.
Eckhard was an enthusiastic field botanist with heart and soul - the Herbarium Berolinense owes him many important collections. For two decades, he was a key pillar of our research programmes in the Euro-Mediterranean region and the Caucasus. With great dedication, he turned the Euro+Med PlantBase into a flagship resource of BO-Berlin. His diplomatic skills helped him to build complex networks and coordinate initiatives.
Eckhard was appreciated by us all as an attentive and friendly person, with proven expertise in many fields, also beyond science, always open to the concerns of his colleagues on whose behalf he was committed to the staff council.
Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his partner, family and all his loved ones.
We will miss Eckhard enormously as a person, friend and highly valued colleague.
Direktor Prof. Dr. Thomas Borsch
& colleagues from the Botanic Garden Berlin
What we study – Our research program
Exploring the Earth’s plant diversity is a highly topical research field with countless new discoveries. Building upon the ground-breaking work of Carl L. Willdenow, Adolf Engler and Ignatz Urban as well as long-standing international partnerships, the Botanic Garden Berlin holds a crucial position in the global network of botanical institutions.
Our research is to a large extent based on our scientific plant collections. Taxonomic research, through which plants are identified, described, named and classified, is a central element of our daily work. Furthermore, we study the phylogenesis of plants and the mechanisms of their evolution. We focus our research on the following model groups of flowering plants and microorganisms: Asterales, Caryophyllales and Diatoms.
Besides this, our research activities are focused on particular regions of the world, where we carry out inventories and investigations of plant diversity together with our local partners. The results of our activities include contributions to Floras, identification guides (including genetic ‘Barcodes’) and concepts for the conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity. Our focal regions are: Europe and Mediterranean area including the Caucasus and Cuba and the Caribbean region.
It is essential to link information about organisms and specimens in the collections, to secure this data sustainably and to make widely accessible and usable. This is the main task of Biodiversity Informatics. To develop efficient software solutions and services that help to process knowledge on biodiversity in a “taxonomically intelligent” way is one of the major tasks of this research and development group. Thereby, we make our collections accessible and work together with our international partners in order to make information on biodiversity available to everyone.
How we conduct our research – Modern research infrastructure
Our research infrastructures and expertise links collections with information resources and up-to-date laboratory technology:
- The scientific collections of living and preserved plants as well as our library represent a comprehensive resource for research.
- In the greenhouses and outdoor beds of the botanic garden it is possible to grow plants for research purposes and to carry out experiments in a controlled environment.
- Our laboratories support all up-to-date methods for analyzing the genome of plants as well as their morphological and anatomical features (light and electron microscopy).
- Comprehensive databases on biological diversity are developed, updated regularly and made available online.
- Our IT service supports not only our Biodiversity Informatics group but helps to link and coordinate all of our research and collection activities.
For bachelor, master and PhD students we provide research and training opportunities on evolution, systematics and diversity of plants, in cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin’s Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy (Working group of Prof. Borsch, Institute of Biology / Botany). Our research infrastructures, our long-term research programs and international partnerships provide an excellent professional learning environment.