Biography

South African botanist. Born in Oudtshoom, Cape Province, Johannes van Staden did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch (BSc, 1960; BSc (Honours), 1961; MSc, 1964), where he wrote a thesis evaluating Digitaria smutsii Stent as a useful pasture grass, and later received his PhD from the University of Natal for his dissertation "Abscisic acid and other hormonal effects on growth in Spirodela." On the basis of this work the CSIR awarded him a scholarship and travel grant to do research in the laboratories of Prof .P.F. Wareing at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he produced novel work on the role of cytokinins in seed dormancy and flowering. He began his career as a lecturer at the University College of the Western Cape, Bellville, in 1962, and joined the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) in 1967, where he rose to Professor and Head of Department and is presently Director of the Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development. His research is focused on the hormonal control of growth, seed germination, flower and leaf senescence, flower induction, rooting, secondary product production, plant tissue culture, plant-based pharmaceuticals, and ethonobotany. He started the university's botanical garden, which grows a collection of indigenous and medicinal plants.

Professor van Staden is the author of nearly 900 publications to date and was acknowledged in 2002 by ISI as one of the internationally most quoted scientists. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to botanical and biological research and is an Elected Fellow and Council Member of the Royal Society of South Africa, an Elected Founder Member of the South African Academy of Science, and an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences in Hungary, where he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Hungary. He has served on several scientific advisory committees and on the editorial boards of a number of scientific bodies, continues to lecture internationally, and since 2001 has been Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Botany.

Sources:
Personal communication, August 2006.

Biography

South African botanist. Born in Oudtshoom, Cape Province, Johannes van Staden did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch (BSc, 1960; BSc (Honours), 1961; MSc, 1964), where he wrote a thesis evaluating Digitaria smutsii Stent as a useful pasture grass, and later received his PhD from the University of Natal for his dissertation "Abscisic acid and other hormonal effects on growth in Spirodela." On the basis of this work the CSIR awarded him a scholarship and travel grant to do research in the laboratories of Prof .P.F. Wareing at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he produced novel work on the role of cytokinins in seed dormancy and flowering. He began his career as a lecturer at the University College of the Western Cape, Bellville, in 1962, and joined the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) in 1967, where he rose to Professor and Head of Department and is presently Director of the Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development. His research is focused on the hormonal control of growth, seed germination, flower and leaf senescence, flower induction, rooting, secondary product production, plant tissue culture, plant-based pharmaceuticals, and ethonobotany. He started the university's botanical garden, which grows a collection of indigenous and medicinal plants.

Professor van Staden is the author of nearly 900 publications to date and was acknowledged in 2002 by ISI as one of the internationally most quoted scientists. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to botanical and biological research and is an Elected Fellow and Council Member of the Royal Society of South Africa, an Elected Founder Member of the South African Academy of Science, and an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences in Hungary, where he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Hungary. He has served on several scientific advisory committees and on the editorial boards of a number of scientific bodies, continues to lecture internationally, and since 2001 has been Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Botany.

Sources:
Personal communication, August 2006.

Biography

South African botanist. Born in Oudtshoom, Cape Province, Johannes van Staden did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch (BSc, 1960; BSc (Honours), 1961; MSc, 1964), where he wrote a thesis evaluating Digitaria smutsii Stent as a useful pasture grass, and later received his PhD from the University of Natal for his dissertation "Abscisic acid and other hormonal effects on growth in Spirodela." On the basis of this work the CSIR awarded him a scholarship and travel grant to do research in the laboratories of Prof .P.F. Wareing at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he produced novel work on the role of cytokinins in seed dormancy and flowering. He began his career as a lecturer at the University College of the Western Cape, Bellville, in 1962, and joined the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) in 1967, where he rose to Professor and Head of Department and is presently Director of the Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development. His research is focused on the hormonal control of growth, seed germination, flower and leaf senescence, flower induction, rooting, secondary product production, plant tissue culture, plant-based pharmaceuticals, and ethonobotany. He started the university's botanical garden, which grows a collection of indigenous and medicinal plants.

Professor van Staden is the author of nearly 900 publications to date and was acknowledged in 2002 by ISI as one of the internationally most quoted scientists. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to botanical and biological research and is an Elected Fellow and Council Member of the Royal Society of South Africa, an Elected Founder Member of the South African Academy of Science, and an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences in Hungary, where he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Hungary. He has served on several scientific advisory committees and on the editorial boards of a number of scientific bodies, continues to lecture internationally, and since 2001 has been Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Botany.

Sources:
Personal communication, August 2006.