Herman Johannes Lam

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herman Johannes Lam during a speech

Herman Johannes Lam (born January 3, 1892 in Veendam , † February 15, 1977 in Leiden ) was a Dutch botanist. Its botanical author abbreviation is " HJLam ".

Life

Herman Johannes was the son of the chemistry teacher Anske Lam (born May 1, 1860 in Leeuwarden; † September 20, 1918 in The Hague) and his wife Margien Winter (born July 14, 1865 in Groningen; † February 13, 1932 in The Hague) . Since his father got a job in Rotterdam, he attended primary school from 1898 and the local Erasmus high school in 1904. In September 1911 he moved to Utrecht University to study biology. On June 24, 1914, he passed his candidate exam and was drafted into the military during World War I. With the support of his teacher Friedrich August Ferdinand Christian Went , he was able to continue his studies in the winter of 1917 and received his doctorate on April 7, 1919 under August Adriaan Pulle (1878–1955) on The Verbenaceae of the Malayan Archipelago (German: Die Eisenkrautgewächse auf dem Malay Archipelago ) for a Doctor of Philosophy. A few weeks later he went to the Dutch East Indies , where he worked as a botanical assistant at the herbarium of the botanical garden of Bogor . During this time, Lam became a recognized authority on the Malay flora.

Two expeditions took him to New Guinea in 1920/21 and to the Moluccas and Sulawesi in 1926 . He also became a member of some local botanical associations. After he was promoted to botanist at the herbarium in 1930, he received an extraordinary professorship in botany at the Jakarta Medical School in July 1932 and became director of the Treub Laboratory in Bogor in December of the same year . On May 26, 1933 he was appointed to the extraordinary professorship of systematic botany at the University of Leiden , which he took up on August 1 of the same year and on November 10, the introductory speech Over indeeling, Verwantschap en verspreiding der planten (German: About the division , Relationship and distribution of the plants ). During the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, he resigned from his professorship on January 28, 1943. After the restoration of the Leiden University, he was hired as a full professor of botany in Leiden on August 28, 1945, and with that he was appointed director of the Rijksherbarium .

During his time in Leiden he developed the Rijksherbarium into an international center for research on tropical plant species. Lam's research sought to combine the taxonomic and geographical facts in the focus of evolutionary theory. In the academy year 1958/59 he became rector of the Alma Mater , in which capacity he gave the reactor council speech De groene blos der aarde (German: The green blood of the earth ) on February 9, 1959 . Lam was a member of many associations and institutions in the botanical science world. For example, in 1954 he became a member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen in Haarlem, in 1957 an honorary member of the Botanical Society of Scotland in Edinburgh, in 1959 a foreign member of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten , in 1960 a member of the UNESCO Committee for Humid Tropical Research and in 1960 Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences .

On September 1, 1962, he retired from his professorship.

Lam was married three times. His first marriage was on April 23, 1919 with Johanna Lina Margaretha de Bruine (born November 18, 1894 in Rotterdam, † October 17, 1981 in The Hague). The marriage remained childless. After he divorced in 1921, he went to Bandung on June 3, 1922, his second marriage to Cornelia Josephine Blanche Moorrees (born April 3, 1886 in Soerakarta; † December 21, 1965 in Leiden). From the marriage comes the daughter Ellen Hermine Lam (born December 18, 1925 in Buitenzorg), who met the economist Willem Karel Hendrik Mertens (born November 16, 1921 in Arnhem; † December 8, 2009 in Bergen) on July 5, 1951 married. His third marriage was on January 19, 1967 with Johanna Hendrika van Drunick (born April 30, 1921; † February 25, 2013 in Leiden). The marriage also remained childless.

Honors

In 1954 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Australia in Perth, was an officer of the Order of Oranje Nassau in 1929 and in 1962 he was knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion . The plant genera Lamechites Markgr. from the family of the dog poison plants (Apocynaceae), Lamiodendron Steenis from the family of the trumpet tree plants (Bignoniaceae) and Lamiofrutex Lauterb. from the mahogany family (Meliaceae) are named after him.

Works (selection)

  • The Verbenaceae of the Malayan Archipelago: together with those from the Malayan Peninsula, the Philippines, the Bismarck-Archipelago, and the Palau-, Marianne- and Caroline-Islands. Groningen 1919
  • Fragmenta Papuana. Jakarta 1927-1929
  • Miangas. Batavia 1932
  • Natuurwetenschap, botany en human. Buitenzorg 1932
  • Over indeeling, managing and spreading the plans. The Hague 1933
  • Materials towards a study of the flora of the island of New Guinea. Leiden 1934
  • Phylogenetic symbols, past and present. Being an apology for genealogical trees. Leiden 1936
  • Evolutie, een poging tot synthesis in algemeen begrijpelijke vorm. Leiden 1946
  • Nederlands Nieuw-Guinee op de tweesprong. Schiedam 1950
  • Country, people en wetenschap in de Stille Oceaan, Nieuw-Zeeland, Fiji, Nieuw-Caledonië, Hawaii. The Hague 1950
  • Nieuw-Guinea en wij. De opbouw zal zwaar en langzaam zijn. Hilversum 1950
  • Carolus Linnaeus, 1707-1778. Rotterdam 1957
  • De groene blos onzer aarde. Leiden 1959
  • Denkbeelden over het ontstaan ​​the angiosperms. Brussels 1961

literature

  • Joseph Lanjouw: Levens report HJ Lam. In: Jaarboek of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1977. Amsterdam, pp. 172–176, ( Online PDF )
  • RPW Visser: Lam, Herman Johannes (1892–1977). In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. (BWN) The Hague, 1994, Vol. 4 ( Online )
  • Marius Jacobs: Herman Johannes Lam (1892-1977), the Life and Work of a Dutch Botanist. Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1984, ISBN 90-6203-545-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lam, Herman Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES HJLam (botanical author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch botanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Veendam
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1977
Place of death Suffer