Christian Leuckert

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Christian Leuckert
Born(1930-03-27)March 27, 1930
Radeberg, near Dresden.
DiedJanuary 27, 2011(2011-01-27) (aged 80)
Berlin
Alma mater University of Leipzig; Free University of Berlin
AwardsAcharius Medal
Scientific career
Thesis “The lignan glycoside arctiin, as a chemotaxonomic feature in the family Compositae. (Das Lignanglykosid Arctiin, als chemotaxonomisches Merkmal in der Familie der Compositen) (1965)
Doctoral advisors Rudolf Hänsel
Author abbrev. (botany) Leuckert

Christian Leuckert was a lichen taxonomist who applied the diversity of secondary metabolites within lichens as useful taxonomic criteria. He was Director of the Institute of Plant Systematics and Plant Geography at the Free University of Berlin from the 1970s until 1995. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Christian Leuckert's parents were Alfred and Louise (née Friedrich) Leuckert. His father worked as an expert plumber. [2] After elementary school in Radeberg, he began attending a Rudolph Steiner school in Dresden, until it was officially closed in 1941. He completed his secondary education in Radeberg. After the Second World War he found himself in the German Democratic Republic. He was able to complete his education from 1946 - 1948 at the re-opened Steiner school. He then trained as a teacher at Technical University of Dresden and Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg.

In 1954 he was allowed to re-start his education, studying biology at University of Leipzig. However, in 1955 he moved to West German and enrolled for biology and chemistry at the Free University of Berlin. In 1961 he started his doctoral research on chemotaxonomy within the Asteraceae under the supervision of Rudolf Hänsel, Director of the Institute for Pharmacognosy at the Botanical Garden and Museum Berlin-Dahlemat the . The PhD degree was awarded in 1965. [2] Über Anthocyane und verwandte Verbindungen bei den Centrospermen“

Career

Leuckert initially worked as a junior school teacher in Leipzig. However, after his later academic studies at the Free University of Berlin he pursued an academic career. From 1962 until 1965 Leukert held a part-time scientific assistant position at the Institute for Pharmacognosy at the Free University of Berlin, which became a full-time post after he gained his PhD. [2] In 1966 he began to apply his knowledge to lichens after being recruited by Josef Poelt, the lichenologist newly appointed as the Professor of Systematic Botany at the Institute of Plant Systematics and Plant Geography at the Free University of Berlin. Leuckert turned out to have organisational and management skills that were used as the Institute developed, including during the construction and out-fitting of a new building in the grounds of the botanic garden. He gained his habilitation in 1970 and was promoted to a professorship. He remained at the Institute of Plant Systematics and Plant Geography until he retired in 1995. [1]

His research and teaching focused on analysis of the secondary metabolites of lichens for taxonomy, adopting new technologies such as mass spectrometry as they became available. He collaborated with many other research groups, especially those expert in morphology, where he provided the chemical analysis component in projects. He was particularly interested in xanthones, not only their structure but also their sub-cellular locations. His own work was primarily on genera within the Lecanorales, notably Acarospora, Cladonia, Dimelaena, Lecanora, Lecidea, Lepraria, Lobothallia, Parmelia, Pertusaria, Ophioparma and Rhizoplaca. [1]

Publications

Leuckert was the author or co-author of at least 94 scientific papers and book chapters. [2] His most significant publications include:

Honours and awards

At his retirement in 1995, when he was 65 years old, a Festschrift was held and published as Studies in lichenology with emphasis on chemotaxonomy, geography and phytochemistry: Festschrift Christian Leuckert with 55 contributions. [3] In 1996 he was awarded the Acharius Medal by the International Association for Lichenology in recognition of his lifetime's work. [4] In 2000 he was made an honorary member of the Italian Society of Lichenology. [2]

Several lichen have been named after him, including Lecanora leuckertiana Zedda (2000) (= Lepraria leuckertiana (Zedda) L.Saag (2009)); Lecidella leuckertiana Knoph & Mies (1995); Mycomicrothelia leuckertii D. Hawksw. & J.C.David (1995); Opegrapha leuckertii S. Y. Kondr. & DJ Galloway (1995) (= Plectocarpon leuckertii (S.Y.Kondr. & D.J.Galloway) Ertz & Diederich (2005)) and Sclerococcum leuckertii Diederich & P.Scholz (1995). [2]

Personal life

He met Eva Schwabhäuser when they were both teachers at an elementary school near Meissen. In 1955 they left for Berlin in West Germany, pretending they were going for a short holiday. They married on 1 June 1955. She trained as a junior school teacher. They had two children together. He died 27 January 2011. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lichenology</span> Branch of mycology that studies lichens

Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga with a filamentous fungus.

Vernon Ahmadjian was a distinguished professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He specialized in the symbiosis of lichens, and wrote several books and numerous publications on the subject.

Irwin M. Brodo is an emeritus scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is an authority on the identification and biology of lichens. Irwin Brodo was honored in 1994 with an Acharius Medal presented to him by the International Association for Lichenology.

<i>Lecidella</i> Genus of fungi

Lecidella is a genus of crustose lichens in the family Lecanoraceae.

Aino Marjatta Henssen, was a German lichenologist and systematist. Her father, Gottfried Henssen, was a folklorist and her mother was Finnish.

Teuvo ("Ted") Tapio Ahti is a Finnish botanist and lichenologist. He has had a long career at the University of Helsinki that started in 1963, and then following his retirement in 1997, at the Botanical Museum of the Finnish Museum of Natural History. Known as a specialist of the lichen family Cladoniaceae, Ahti has published more than 280 scientific publications. A Festschrift was dedicated to him in 1994, and in 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Acharius Medal for lifetime contributions to lichenology.

Josef Hafellner is an Austrian mycologist and lichenologist. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2016 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Before his retirement, he was a professor at the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz. Hafellner started developing an interest in lichens while he was a student at this institution, studying under Josef Poelt. He earned a master's degree in 1975 and a PhD in 1978, defending a doctoral thesis about the genus Karschia. In 2003, Hafellner received his habilitation. By this time, he had studied with French lichenologist André Bellemère (1927–2014) at Saint-Cloud, where he learned techniques of transmission electron microscopy and how their application in studying asci could be used in lichen systematics. His 1984 work Studien in Richtung einer natürlicheren Gliederung der Sammelfamilien Lecanoraceae und Lecideaceae has been described as "probably the single most influential publication in lichen systematics in the latter half of the 20th century".

Rolf Santesson (1916–2013) was a Swedish lichenologist and university lecturer. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology.

Thomas Hawkes Nash III is an American lichenologist. His research is about the biology and ecology of lichens, and the effects of air pollution on plants and lichens. He is known as an authority on the family Parmeliaceae. During his long career at the Arizona State University, he helped develop the lichen herbarium into a world-class collection with over 100,000 specimens representing more than 5000 species. In 2010, the year of his retirement, he was awarded the Acharius Medal for lifetime achievements in lichenology, and the following year had a Festschrift published in his honor.

Per Magnus Jørgensen is a Norwegian botanist and lichenologist, and Professor Emeritus of systematic botany at the University of Bergen. He is known for his work on the lichen families Pannariaceae and Collemataceae. Jørgensen was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2021 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology.

Antonín (Toni) Vězda was a Czech lichenologist. After completing a university education that was postponed by World War II, Vězda taught botany at the Czech University of Life Sciences. In 1958, he was dismissed from his university position as a result of the restrictions placed on academic freedoms by the communist regime in power. He eventually was hired as a lichen researcher by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, who allowed him to work from his apartment, which served also as an office and herbarium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunnar Degelius</span> Swedish lichenologist

Gunnar Bror Fritiof Degelius was a Swedish lichenologist. Between the publications of his first and final scientific papers, Degelius had a 70-year-long research career. While he was best known for his expertise on the lichen genus Collema, he also wrote important papers on lichen biology and ecology, floristic studies of the Nordic countries and various other areas around the world, and lichen succession. Degelius described 124 new taxa, and published about 130 scientific papers. In 1992 he was one of the first to be awarded the Acharius Medal for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Fifteen species and three genera have been named in honour of Degelius.

Elisabeth Tschermak-Woess was an Austrian University lecturer, cytologist, and phycologist who worked with lichen photobionts. In 1994, Tschermak-Woess was awarded the Acharius Medal for her lifetime contributions to lichenology. She had a Festschrift dedicated to her in 1988, in the journal Plant Systematics and Evolution. Lichen taxa that have been named after Tschermak-Woess include the genus Woessia and the species Asterochloris woessiae.

Helmut Mayrhofer is an Austrian lichenologist. He is known for his expertise on the lichen family Physciaceae and his studies of the lichen flora of the Balkan Peninsula, the Alps, and other regions.

Klaus Kalb is a German lichenologist and an authority on tropical lichens.

Henricus (Harrie) Johannes Maria Sipman is a Dutch lichenologist. He specialises in tropical and subtropical lichens, and has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. He was the curator of the lichen herbarium at the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum from 1983 until his retirement in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siegfried Huneck</span> German chemist and lichenologist (1928–2011)

Siegfried Huneck was a German chemist and lichenologist. Much of his scientific career was hampered by the political situation in the former German Democratic Republic. He rejected pursuing a career in academia, and instead ended up working at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, a public research institute, from 1969 until his retirement in 1993. Despite his relative isolation and restricted freedoms in East Germany, Huneck had numerous professional contacts both in Germany and abroad, and was a highly published scholar. Many of his more than 400 scientific publications dealt with the chemistry of lichen products. He was awarded the Acharius Medal for lifetime achievements in lichenology in 1996.

Hannes Hertel is a German botanist and taxonomist and was Director of the State Herbarium in Munich, Germany 1992–2004. His specialist areas are the fungi and lichens.

Josef Poelt was a botanist, bryologist and lichenologist. He held the chair in Systematic Botany and Plant Geography at the Free University of Berlin and then was head of the Botanical Institute and Botanical Garden of Graz University, Austria.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Acharius Medallists Christian Leuckert". International Association for Lichenology. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hertel, Hannes (2011). "Prof. Dr. Christian Leuckert (27.3.1930–27.1.2011)". Herzogia. 24 (1): 19–31. doi:10.13158/heia.24.1.2011.19. S2CID   84893372 . Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Knoph, Johannes-Günther; Sipman, H J M, eds. (1995). Studies in Lichenology with Emphasis on Chemotaxonomy, Geography and Phytochemistry – Festschrift Christian Leuckert - (Bibliotheca Lichenologica Band 57. J. Cramer. p. 476.
  4. ↑ "Acharius Medallists". International Association for Lichenology. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
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