Dutch botanist and phytogeographer Cornelis van Steenis conceived and organised Flora Malesiana. Steenis gained his doctorate at the University of Utrecht (his home city) in 1927, after which he left Europe for Java to begin work as an assistant in the Buitenzorg (Bogor) Herbarium. He returned to live in Holland some 20 years later, where he remained except for a year-long sojourn back in Bogor in 1949-1950, and his numerous collecting trips.

It was in Europe that Steenis' idea for Flora Malesiana became reality and as director of the Flora Malesiana Foundation from 1950 he oversaw and contributed greatly to the project. Steenis' wife, Maria Johanna van Steenis-Kruseman, was always his close collaborator and contributed to the flora project with a "Cyclopedia of Collectors".

In 1951 Steenis was appointed Professor of Tropical Botany and Plant Geography at the Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. From 1953 he was also a professor at the University of Leiden and in 1962 became Director of the Rijksherbarium. He remained at the head of the Rijksherbarium until 1972 and worked on Flora Malesiana until his death. The genus Steenisia Bakh.f. is named in his honour.

Sources:
K. Kalkman, 1986, "CGGJ van Steenis (1901-1986)", Taxon, 35(4): 937-938
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, 1985, Blumea, Vol. 20(1): 1-37
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
www.nationaalherbarium.nl/fmcollectors/s/SteenisCGGJvan.htm, accessed 16 May 2012.