Gerd Kobabe

Gerd Kobabe

Gerd Kobabe (born April 16, 1929 in Hamburg ) is a German plant geneticist specializing in vegetable and fodder plant breeding .

Life

Gerd Kobabe, son of a jeweler and watchmaker, completed a three-year horticultural apprenticeship in a tree nursery and a horticultural company after passing his Abitur examination in 1948. From 1951 to 1954 he studied horticultural science at the Technical University of Hanover . There he received his doctorate in 1958 under the plant geneticist Hermann Kuckuck with a dissertation on evolutionary and genetic studies on new male sterile mutants of the kitchen onion . He then worked as an assistant or senior assistant at the Institute for Applied Genetics in Hanover-Herrenhausen. In 1969 he completed his habilitation there with a fundamental paper on the genetics of the onion and the possibilities for the development of hybrid varieties .

In 1970 Kobabe accepted a call to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Göttingen . As full professor at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding, he took over the management of the newly created Department for Forage Plant Breeding . He worked here until his retirement in 1994.

Research and Teaching

In addition to his long-term investigations into the genetics of the onion, questions about male sterility in the breeding of spinach and chives were among his research projects in Hanover . In Göttingen, the focus of his scientific work was basic genetic research for practical grass breeding . In the case of ryegrasses , he dealt with the breeding of hybrid varieties using male sterility.

Kobabe recognized early on the increasing importance of biometrics and statistics not only for plant breeding, but also for other areas of agricultural research. It was primarily thanks to him that these two areas of study were integrated into the curricula of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Göttingen through his own lectures and practical exercises. Kobabe is co-author of the textbook " Grundzüge der Pflanzenzüchtung ", published in 1985 , of which foreign-language editions were later published.

From 1988 to 1996 Kobabe was an expert reviewer for the German Research Foundation and in 1992 a member of the expert commission of the German Rectors' Conference on the Expansion of the University System in Mongolia . From 1986 to 1995 he was a co-editor of the magazine "Plant Breeding".

Important publications

• Developmental and genetic studies on new male sterile mutants of the kitchen onion (Allium cepa L.), as well as studies on the inbreeding effect on several characteristics of an inbreeding heterosis breed . Diss. Techn. Hochsch. Hanover, Faculty of Horticulture and Regional Culture 1958 (microfilm only). - Zugl. in: Journal for Plant Breeding Vol. 40, 1958, pp. 353-384.
• Kitchen onion (Allium cepa L.) (with Hermann Kuckuck). In: Handbuch der Pflanzenzuchtung, Verlag Paul Parey Berlin and Hamburg, 2nd ed., Vol. 6, 1962, pp. 270-312.
• Genetic studies on the onion (Allium cepa L.) with special consideration of the inbreeding heterosis phenomena and the influence of cytoplasmic hereditary factors on the traits of hybrid varieties . Habil.-Schr. Techn. Univ. Hanover, Fac. For Horticulture and Regional Culture 1969. - Under the same title as a brochure: Advances in Plant Breeding Volume 1, Paul Parey Publishing House Berlin and Hamburg 1971.
• Basics of Genetics . In: W. Schuster and H. Geidel, The agricultural-technical assistant. Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1977, pp. 163-182.
• Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Fodder Grass . In: heterosis. Monographs on Theoretical and Applied Genetics Vol. 6, edited by R. Frankel. Springer-Verlag Berlin u. Heidelberg 1983, pp. 124-137.
• Basics of plant breeding (with Hermann Kuckuck and Gerhard Wenzel). 5. rework. u. exp. Ed. Verlag de Gruyter Berlin 1985. - Edition in Japanese language 1986, edition in Hungarian language 1988. - English language edition under the title Fundamentals of Plant Breeding . Springer-Verlag Berlin 1991; Reprinted by Narosa Publishing House New Delhi 1993.
• Highlights of Plant Breeding in Göttingen . In: Lectures for Plant Breeding Vol. 16, 1989, pp. 27-30.

literature

• Catalogus Professorum 1831-1981 . Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the University of Hanover. Verlag W. Kohlhammer Stuttgart 1981, Vol. 2, p. 152 (with picture).
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2007 . Bio-bibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists. 21st edition, KG Saur Verlag Munich 2007, Vol. II, p. 1838.