Biography

German botanist. Kubitzki was born in Niesky, Oberlausitz, and studied biology and geology at the universities of Innsbruck, Goettingen and Kiel. His early work was in quaternary studies, which led to his doctoral work at Kiel (1960). From 1961-1963 he served as associate professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, southern Chile. In 1968 he obtained a higher degree from the University of Muenster and from the same year to 1973 was a lecturer at the University of Munich, continuing from 1973 to 1998 as professor of systematic botany at the University of Hamburg.

As well as pursuing taxonomic studies Kubitzki has carried out much work in the areas of historical plant geography and geoecology, especially of the Guayana Highland and its southern foreland, and also in dispersal and floral biology. With O.R. Gottlieb (Brazil) he has worked on chemical plant systematics. As the object of his collecting has usually been to provide plant material for studies in pollination and dispersal biology, and less so in taxonomy, he has seldom made 'general' collections. Kubitzki continues to edit and partly author the reference series The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants (1990-). He has been honoured in the names of several plant species and one genus, the invalid Kubitzkia van der Werff.

Sources:

Personal communication, June 2009.