Ferdinand von Hochstetter, geologist, was born in Esslingen, Württemberg. His father, Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (1787-1860), was a clergyman and professor, and author of several works on botany and mineralogy.
Ferdinand von Hochstetter studied theology and natural sciences at the University of Tübingen, where his interest in geology developed. He went on to take his doctor's degree in 1852 and earned a travelling scholarship, allowing him to study in other parts of Europe. In 1853 he was recruited to the Austrian Geological Survey and worked over the following years in the Bohemian forest and at Carlsbad. In 1856 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Vienna.
In 1857-1859 Hochstetter took part in the round-the-world voyage of the Austrian ship Novara as expedition geologist. The ship, with its eight scientists, sailed from Trieste to Rio de Janeiro, and thence to Cape Town, Sri Lanka, India, Sydney and Auckland. Although the official botanical collector on the trip was Anton Jelinek, Hochstetter also collected plant specimens (mainly ferns), and, leaving the expedition at New Zealand, made a geological survey of that country in 1859 at the behest of the New Zealand government. In this he worked with fellow German Julius Haast, returning to Europe in January 1860 via Victoria (Australia), Mauritius and the Red Sea. Much of the next ten years for Hochstetter was taken up with preparing the collections and reports from this voyage. He also published more than 20 papers on the subject of New Zealand, in particular being the first to describe many of its geological features.
The Novara expedition returned with some 3,500 botanical specimens, which were accessioned in 1869 by the herbarium of the Vienna Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), of which Hochstetter was appointed the first director in 1876. His independent collections from New Zealand were also deposited there. In addition to his post at the museum, Hochstetter served as Professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute from 1860 until 1881. He was president of the Geographical Society of Vienna from 1866-1882 and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was married to Georgiana Bengough in 1861, with whom he had eight children. Hochstetter, who had been granted a knighthood in 1884, died on 18 July that year at Oberdöbling, near Vienna. He is commemorated in several place names in New Zealand and in a number of species names.
Sources:
C.A. Fleming, "Hochstetter, Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand von", Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand:
www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1h30/1, accessed 13 December 2011
G. Sayre, 1975, "Cryptogamae Exsiccatae: an annotated bibliography of exsiccatae of algae, lichens, hepaticae, and musci. V. Unpublished Exsiccatae: I. Collectors", Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, 19(3): 339-340
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/H/HochstetterFvon.htm, accessed 13 December 2011.
