Garden Honors Swiss Scientist
Press Release, 01/10/2010
Garden Honors Swiss Scientist
Endress Continues in the Tradition of David Fairchild
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kalāheo, Kaua‘i, HI USA (January 10, 2010) - Distinguished botanist and researcher Dr. Peter Karl Endress of the University of Zurich has been named the 2010 recipient of the esteemed David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the National Tropical Botanical Garden announced today. As the recipient of the 12th annual Fairchild Medal, Dr. Endress will be recognized for his contributions to systematic botany and the study of floral microfeatures, breeding systems, and the plant family Monimiaceae, among others subjects.
The award will be presented by NTBG Director and CEO Charles “Chipper” Wichman at a black-tie dinner on February 12 at NTBG’s Florida garden, The Kampong, the former estate and private garden of the award’s namesake Dr. David Fairchild. A scientific symposium will take place on the evening of February 13.
Upon learning he was selected to receive the esteemed Fairchild Award, Dr. Endress said it was a “wonderful, very unexpected surprise.” From his home in Switzerland, he wrote, “This is a great honor, all the more as I’m not an explorer in the classical sense. My focus is not on geographical areas but on plant groups. I explore specific relic plant groups in various tropical regions of the world.”
“NTBG has developed into an invaluable institution for research on tropical plants that benefits scientists, students, and plant enthusiasts. Because of this broad scope of the organization, it is an especially great honor to receive this medal,” wrote Endress.
Dr. Endress, who earned a Masters Degree and Ph.D., both with distinction, from the University of Zurich in the 1960s, has held nine positions with the University of Zurich from 1964 to the present. Since 2007 he has been Professor Emeritus. Additionally, Dr. Endress has acted as Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany and Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich.
As an internationally noted authority on floral morphology and biology, Dr. Endress has spent decades advancing a better understanding of the evolutionary origin of flowering plants. Dr. Endress has conducted extensive field work from Central, South, and North America to the Indian sub-continent, China, Oceania and Papua New Guinea to Madagascar, Japan, Hawai‘i, the Caucasus Mountains, and across Africa.
Few have produced the quality and volume of popular and academic published materials that Dr. Endress can claim as his own. With over 400 publications in primarily peer-reviewed international journals and highly-regarded books on botany, Dr. Endress has garnered not only the respect and admiration of fellow scientists, but also has earned a high reputation with botany students at all levels.
Chipper Wichman, NTBG’s Director and CEO said, “Dr. Endress’s unparalleled knowledge stems from the kind of extensive fieldwork that makes him a worthy recipient of the Fairchild medal. The meticulous insight and microscopic observation possessed by Dr. Endress is the kind to which David Fairchild also aspired.”
Dr. P. Barry Tomlinson, Harvard Professor Emeritus and NTBG’s Distinguished Professor of Tropical Botany, called Dr. Endress “undoubtedly one of the most distinguished of all modern botanists.” Tomlinson lauded Endress for his leading work on floral morphology in relation to flowering plant phylogeny. “Peter Endress’ publication record is outstanding. His book Diversity and Evolutionary Biology of Tropical Flowers is a best-seller.”
Dr. Endress will be the twelfth recipient of the Fairchild Medal, which is awarded each year to a scientist who has demonstrated distinguished service to humanity by continuing the Fairchild’s legacy by exploring remote areas of the world, using innovative travel itineraries, conveyances or techniques to discover new plant species or cultivars; bringing into cultivation new and important plants that hold significant promise as agricultural or horticultural varieties; and playing crucial roles in the conservation of endangered plant species. Nominations are made by an international panel of botanists and plant explorers. Fairchild medalists receive a bronze medal, a cash award, and a citation commending their dedicated and adventurous exploration.
Dr. David Fairchild, one of the greatest and most influential horticulturalists and plant collectors in the United States, devoted twenty-five years of his life to plant exploration, searching for useful plants suitable for introduction into the United States. As an early “Indiana Jones” type explorer, he conducted field trips throughout Asia, the South Pacific, Dutch East (Indonesia) and West Indies (Caribbean Islands), South America, Egypt, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), China, Japan, the Persian Gulf, and East and South Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s. These explorations resulted in the introduction of many tropical plants of economic importance to the United States, including sorghum, nectarines, unique species of bamboo, dates, and varieties of mangoes. In addition, as director of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture during the early 20th Century, Dr. Fairchild was instrumental in the introduction of approximately 75,000 selected varieties and species of useful plants, such as Duram wheat, Japanese rices, Sudan grass, Chinese soy beans, Chinese elms, persimmons, and pistachios.
Fairchild and his wife, Marion Bell Fairchild, daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, purchased property in South Florida in 1916 and created both a home and an “introduction garden” for plant species found on his expeditions. He named the property “The Kampong,” the Malay word for “village.” The unique tropical species he collected from Southeast Asia in the 1930s and 1940s are still part of the heritage collections of The Kampong, which operates today as part of the not-for-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden (www.ntbg.org). The NTBG includes five gardens and three preserves in Hawai‘i and Florida and is dedicated to conservation, research, and education relating to the world’s rare and endangered tropical plants.
National Tropical Botanical Garden is a non-governmental institution with nearly 2,000 acres of gardens and preserves in Hawai‘i and Florida. Its mission is to enrich life through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education by perpetuating the survival of plants, ecosystems, and cultural knowledge of tropical regions. NTBG is supported primarily through donations and grants.
---
Media contact: Janet L. Leopold, administration@ntbg.org, (808) 332-7324, ext. 213 or Jon Letman, jletman@ntbg.org jletman@ntbg.org, at NTBG Headquarters
Kampong contact: Iliana Leon, kampong@ntbg.org, (305) 442-7169
Photos available upon request.
Endress Continues in the Tradition of David Fairchild
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kalāheo, Kaua‘i, HI USA (January 10, 2010) - Distinguished botanist and researcher Dr. Peter Karl Endress of the University of Zurich has been named the 2010 recipient of the esteemed David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the National Tropical Botanical Garden announced today. As the recipient of the 12th annual Fairchild Medal, Dr. Endress will be recognized for his contributions to systematic botany and the study of floral microfeatures, breeding systems, and the plant family Monimiaceae, among others subjects.
The award will be presented by NTBG Director and CEO Charles “Chipper” Wichman at a black-tie dinner on February 12 at NTBG’s Florida garden, The Kampong, the former estate and private garden of the award’s namesake Dr. David Fairchild. A scientific symposium will take place on the evening of February 13.
Upon learning he was selected to receive the esteemed Fairchild Award, Dr. Endress said it was a “wonderful, very unexpected surprise.” From his home in Switzerland, he wrote, “This is a great honor, all the more as I’m not an explorer in the classical sense. My focus is not on geographical areas but on plant groups. I explore specific relic plant groups in various tropical regions of the world.”
“NTBG has developed into an invaluable institution for research on tropical plants that benefits scientists, students, and plant enthusiasts. Because of this broad scope of the organization, it is an especially great honor to receive this medal,” wrote Endress.
Dr. Endress, who earned a Masters Degree and Ph.D., both with distinction, from the University of Zurich in the 1960s, has held nine positions with the University of Zurich from 1964 to the present. Since 2007 he has been Professor Emeritus. Additionally, Dr. Endress has acted as Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany and Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich.
As an internationally noted authority on floral morphology and biology, Dr. Endress has spent decades advancing a better understanding of the evolutionary origin of flowering plants. Dr. Endress has conducted extensive field work from Central, South, and North America to the Indian sub-continent, China, Oceania and Papua New Guinea to Madagascar, Japan, Hawai‘i, the Caucasus Mountains, and across Africa.
Few have produced the quality and volume of popular and academic published materials that Dr. Endress can claim as his own. With over 400 publications in primarily peer-reviewed international journals and highly-regarded books on botany, Dr. Endress has garnered not only the respect and admiration of fellow scientists, but also has earned a high reputation with botany students at all levels.
Chipper Wichman, NTBG’s Director and CEO said, “Dr. Endress’s unparalleled knowledge stems from the kind of extensive fieldwork that makes him a worthy recipient of the Fairchild medal. The meticulous insight and microscopic observation possessed by Dr. Endress is the kind to which David Fairchild also aspired.”
Dr. P. Barry Tomlinson, Harvard Professor Emeritus and NTBG’s Distinguished Professor of Tropical Botany, called Dr. Endress “undoubtedly one of the most distinguished of all modern botanists.” Tomlinson lauded Endress for his leading work on floral morphology in relation to flowering plant phylogeny. “Peter Endress’ publication record is outstanding. His book Diversity and Evolutionary Biology of Tropical Flowers is a best-seller.”
Dr. Endress will be the twelfth recipient of the Fairchild Medal, which is awarded each year to a scientist who has demonstrated distinguished service to humanity by continuing the Fairchild’s legacy by exploring remote areas of the world, using innovative travel itineraries, conveyances or techniques to discover new plant species or cultivars; bringing into cultivation new and important plants that hold significant promise as agricultural or horticultural varieties; and playing crucial roles in the conservation of endangered plant species. Nominations are made by an international panel of botanists and plant explorers. Fairchild medalists receive a bronze medal, a cash award, and a citation commending their dedicated and adventurous exploration.
Dr. David Fairchild, one of the greatest and most influential horticulturalists and plant collectors in the United States, devoted twenty-five years of his life to plant exploration, searching for useful plants suitable for introduction into the United States. As an early “Indiana Jones” type explorer, he conducted field trips throughout Asia, the South Pacific, Dutch East (Indonesia) and West Indies (Caribbean Islands), South America, Egypt, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), China, Japan, the Persian Gulf, and East and South Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s. These explorations resulted in the introduction of many tropical plants of economic importance to the United States, including sorghum, nectarines, unique species of bamboo, dates, and varieties of mangoes. In addition, as director of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture during the early 20th Century, Dr. Fairchild was instrumental in the introduction of approximately 75,000 selected varieties and species of useful plants, such as Duram wheat, Japanese rices, Sudan grass, Chinese soy beans, Chinese elms, persimmons, and pistachios.
Fairchild and his wife, Marion Bell Fairchild, daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, purchased property in South Florida in 1916 and created both a home and an “introduction garden” for plant species found on his expeditions. He named the property “The Kampong,” the Malay word for “village.” The unique tropical species he collected from Southeast Asia in the 1930s and 1940s are still part of the heritage collections of The Kampong, which operates today as part of the not-for-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden (www.ntbg.org). The NTBG includes five gardens and three preserves in Hawai‘i and Florida and is dedicated to conservation, research, and education relating to the world’s rare and endangered tropical plants.
National Tropical Botanical Garden is a non-governmental institution with nearly 2,000 acres of gardens and preserves in Hawai‘i and Florida. Its mission is to enrich life through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education by perpetuating the survival of plants, ecosystems, and cultural knowledge of tropical regions. NTBG is supported primarily through donations and grants.
---
Media contact: Janet L. Leopold, administration@ntbg.org, (808) 332-7324, ext. 213 or Jon Letman, jletman@ntbg.org jletman@ntbg.org, at NTBG Headquarters
Kampong contact: Iliana Leon, kampong@ntbg.org, (305) 442-7169
Photos available upon request.
- GARDEN ACCEPTING INTERN APPLICATIONS, 05/20/2013
- Today Show tapes in McBryde Garden, 05/14/2013
- May 21 Lecture Features Art of Discovery, 05/14/2013
- Bring Mom to the Garden on Mother’s Day, 05/06/2013
- NTBG and KCC Special Film Showing April 23, 04/08/2013
- NTBG and KCC announce new lecture series: Around the World of Plants, 02/22/2013
- NTBG announces 2013 Course for Science Teachers, 01/11/2013
- National Tropical Botanical Garden Honors Scottish Botanist, 01/09/2013
- Samoa Benefits from Hawaii Garden, 12/14/2012
- Garden’s Popular Holiday Craft Fair is Dec. 2, 11/23/2012
News
Now showing page 1 of 11 | Next Page
