Johannes Max Proskauer

Johannes Max Proskauer (born December 5, 1923 in Göttingen , † December 20, 1970 in Berkeley , California ) was an American bryologist of German origin. Its botanical author abbreviation is “ Prosk. ".

Live and act

Johannes Max Proskauer was born in Göttingen as the son of Walter and Margarethe Proskauer (née Jacob). His father was a lawyer in Göttingen and chairman of the Central Association of Citizens of the Jewish Faith. His mother was a photographer . When the family fell victim to anti-Semitic attacks in the early 1930s, they first moved to Oberstdorf im Allgäu in 1934 and then moved to Berlin . While his parents stayed in Germany, Johannes emigrated to England. The mother died in Berlin in 1940. The father was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 .

After studying at the University of London , Johannes Max Proskauer graduated with a Bachelor of Science. In 1947 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the biology and morphology of the British species of the hornmoss genus Anthoceros as a doctor of botany. In 1944 he was laboratory administrator at the University College of North Wales at Bangor and from 1945 to 1948 he taught botany at the South East Essex Technical College at Dagenham . In 1948 he moved to California and became a teacher in the Department of Botany at the University of California, Berkeley . In 1951 he became an assistant professor, an associate professor in 1957 and a full professor in 1963 at the University of California. From 1954 to 1955 he received a Guggenheim grant . From 1964 to 1965 he was Professor of Botany at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California. In 1964 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of London.

Proskauer's main research area was horn mosses . In 1951 he wrote the first description of the genus Phaeoceros . For the 3rd edition of Karl Müller's Liverworts in Europe, he revised the Anthocerotaceae family and published his statements in 1957 under the title Addendum to the Anthocerotaceae family . In 1949 he discovered the taxon Cyathodium spruceanum in Peru .

Proskauer committed suicide on December 20, 1970 . In 1999 a prize was donated in his honor.

Fonts (selection)

• 1948: Studies on the morphology of Anthoceros, Part 1. Annals of Bot., Ser. 2, 12: 237-265
• 1948: Studies on the morphology of Anthoceros. Part 2. Annals of Bot., Ser. 2, 12: 427-439
• 1950: Notes on Hepaticae
• 1951: Studies on Anthocerotales. Part III. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 78: 331-349
• 1951: Studies on Anthocerotales. Part IV. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 80: 65-75
• 1954: On Sphaerocarpos stipitatus and the genus Sphaerocarpos
• 1954: A study of the Phaeoceros laevis complex and the European Anthocerotae. Rap. et Comm. VIII Cong. Int. Bot., Paris xiv-xvi: 68-69
• 1955: The Sphaerocarpales of South Africa
• 1957: Addendum to the Anthocerotaceae family
• 1958: Studies on Anthocerotales, Part V. Phytomorphology 7: 113-135
• 1960: Studies on Anthocerotales, Part VI. Phytomorphology 10: 1-19
• 1961: On Carrpos, I. Phytomorphology 11: 359-378
• 1962: On Takakia, especially its mucilage hairs J. Hattori Bot. Lab 25: 217-223
• 1968: Studies on Anthocerotales. Part VII. Phytomorphology 17: 61-70
• 1968: Papers on Bryology: 1948-1968
• 1969: Studies on Anthocerotales. Part VIII. Phytomorphology 19: 52-66

literature

• The Jewish citizens in the Göttingen district 1933–1945: Göttingen - Hann. Münden - Duderstadt. A memorial book . Wallstein. 2nd ed. (1993). ISBN 978-3892440482
• Jan-Peter Frahm, Jens Eggers: Lexicon of German-speaking bryologists . BoD - Books on Demand, 2001. ISBN 978-3831109869

Web links

• University of California obituary.
• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Johannes Max Proskauer at the IPNI