Werner Hempel (botanist)

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Werner Hempel (born August 28, 1936 in Großpostwitz ; † July 14, 2012 in Bautzen ) was a German botanist and university professor . His botanical author abbreviation is " W.Hempel ".

Life

His teacher Theodor Schütze aroused his interest in botany while he was still in primary school .

After completing primary school in 1950, he graduated from the Friedrich Schiller High School in Bautzen. In 1954 he began studying at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena , which he completed in 1960 with a degree in biology. The topic of his diploma thesis with Otto Schwarz was preparatory work for a revision of the European-Near Eastern species of the genus Melica L. - the genus Melica occupied him for more than 50 years.

He then worked as a scientific aspirant in the Dresden branch of the Institute for State Research and Nature Conservation (ILN) Halle. When his position there was canceled in 1962, he moved to the Technical University of Dresden . There he received his doctorate in 1967 with a dissertation on the plant-geographical structure of Saxony. After the Botanical Institute of the TU Dresden was closed for political reasons a year later, he took up a job again at the ILN, now as a scientific assistant .

He received his teaching qualification from the TU Dresden in 1982 and in 1984 took over the lectureship for geobotanical basics of landscape architecture . In 1992 he became a member of the founding committee of the Biology Department at TU Dresden. From 1994 until his retirement in 2001 he was head of the newly founded Institute for Botany at the TU Dresden and vice dean of the field of biology.

Act

From 1962 he was honorary chairman of the Working Group of Saxon Botanists and the Dresden Technical Committee for Botany for 25 years, he was also a member of the Central Technical Committee for Botany. The appearance of the first Saxon Red List of Endangered Plant Species in 1976 is considered a milestone .

As a connoisseur of the flora of Saxony, he played a key role in the methodological basis for plant mapping and the creation of distribution maps. Together with Hans Schiemenz , he developed a scientific documentation of the nature reserves of Saxony.

After the social changes in 1989 , he worked to ensure that the Botanical Institute of the TU Dresden was re-established. He took over the management of the founding commission and in 1994 became director of the Dresden Botanical Garden .

With his habilitation thesis, he made a decisive contribution to the development of a map of the potential natural vegetation of Saxony.

After his retirement, he continued his teaching activities at the Dresden University of Technology and Economics with a series of lectures on topics such as the flora of the earth and the global development of crops. He got involved in the further education work of the Saxon State Foundation for Nature and Environment and the Neschwitz Winter Academy as well as in the work of the Natural Research Society of Upper Lusatia .

With his comprehensive work on the development of the flora in Saxony, he succeeded for the first time in highlighting the close connection to land use by humans.

After decades of research, he completed his scientific life's work on the taxonomy of the genus Melica with a comprehensive publication.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Hempel: The plant-geographical structure of Saxony, presented on the basis of the distribution gradient of selected species of natural vegetation. Dissertation, Technical University of Dresden, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, July 7, 1967
  2. ↑ Werner Hempel: Original and potential natural vegetation in Saxony: An analysis of the development of landscape and forest vegetation. Dissertation B, Technical University of Dresden, 1983
  3. ↑ Werner Hempel, Hans Schiemenz: The nature reserves of the districts Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Dresden (= manual of the nature reserves of the German Democratic Republic, volume 5). 2nd edition, Urania-Verlag, Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1986
  4. ^ PA Schmidt, W. Hempel, M. Denner, N. Döring, A. Gnüchtel, B. Walter, D. Wendel: Potential natural vegetation of Saxony. Series: Materials on Nature Conservation and Landscape Management. Saxon State Office for Environment and Geology, Dresden 2002, ISBN 3-00-010015-6
  5. ↑ Werner Hempel: The flora of Saxony from the late ice age to the present. Weißdorn-Verlag, Jena 2009, ISBN 978-3-936055-57-3
  6. ↑ Werner Hempel: Revision and phylogeny of the species of the genus Melica L. (Poaceae) in Eurasia and North Africa. In: Fedde's repertory. Volume 122, No. 1–2, 2011, pp. 1–253, DOI: 10.1002 / fedr.201100029

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Hempel, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Großpostwitz
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 2012
Place of death Bautzen