Dutch botanist André Kostermans was an authority on the plants of Southeast Asia. Born in Poerworedjo, Java, he studied in Europe at Utrecht University and gained his PhD in 1936, with a thesis on Lauraceae in Suriname. Kostermans then returned to Java to teach biology in Batavia.

In 1941 he was appointed assistant in systematic botany at the Agricultural College of Buitenzorg, but did not enjoy the position for long before the country was occupied by Japanese forces and Kostermans was taken Prisoner of War. He was interned in Thailand, where he made an expedition after the war's end, accompanied by Siebe Bloembergen and Gerrit den Hoed.

Kostermans returned briefly to Java in 1946, but was sent back to Indo-China to collect more specimens for Buitenzorg and did not settle in Java once more until June 1947. He then joined the Forest Research Institute, Buitenzorg, and from 1956 was Head of the Botanical Division of the institute. Around this time he made several visits to Borneo to collect plants, and continued to collect in Indonesia and Borneo in the 1960s.

Kostermans was especially interested in the Lauraceae and Dipterocarpaceae families, as well as the Malvales and Asian Anacardiaceae.

After suffering a heart attack in 1991 he published his final major work, on mangoes, in 1993. He died the following year. The genus Kostermansia Soegeng was named in his honour.

Sources:
L. Dorr, 1995, ASPT Newseltter, 9(1): 18
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/K/KostermansAJGH.htm, accessed 25 May 2012.