Maria Olech

Last updated
Maria Agata Olech
NationalityPolish
Alma materJagiellonian University
Scientific career
FieldsPolar mycology & lichenology
InstitutionsJagiellonian University

Maria Agata Olech (born 1941) is a Polish Antarctic researcher, known for her work on lichenology and mycology of the Antarctic and Arctic. [1] [2] [3] Olech was base leader for the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station [4] and the Olech Hills in the Three Sisters point area of Antarctica was named in her honour. [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Olech was born in Nowy Sącz (Southern Poland) in 1941. [1] She graduated in biology (1963) from the Department of Biology and Earth Sciences at the Jagiellonian University with her MSc in 1963. [1] She then completed a PhD in lichenology (1968) in the Institute of Botany Jagiellonian University. The title of her thesis was Stosunki lichenologiczne Beskidu Sądeckiego (Western Carpathians). [1]

Career and impact

Olech has worked extensively on the taxonomy, biodiversity, ecology, biogeography and adaptations of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi in mountains and polar regions. She has also worked on heavy metals and radionuclides contaminants of the Antarctic environment and other human impacts on terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems. She has described about 100 algae, lichens, fungi, lichenicolous fungi new to science. [1]

Olech was a research assistant at the Institute of Botany Jagiellonian University (1968-1971), where she organized the laboratory and herbarium of lichens. She was then appointed assistant professor at the Institute of Botany Jagiellonian University (1971-1986) and was promoted to associate professor (1986-1992) at the Institute of Botany Jagiellonian University, where she organized Department of Polar Research and Documentation.

She became a full professor of biology at the Jagiellonian University in 1992. She is also the curator of the Jagiellonian University Cryptogamic Herbarium, is the president of the editorial board of Polish Polar Research, the president of Team of Biology and Development of Polar Landscapes within the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. [1]

Olech was the head of the Polish Antarctic Station from 1991-1993 and then again from 2005-2006. [1] She was the head of the Zdzisław Czeppe Department of Polar Research and Documentation, Jagiellonian University (1996- 2011). [1] She has participated in and led several Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. [1] [2]

Awards and honours

Olech became a member of The Explorers Club in 2001. [2] [6] In addition the Olech Hills in the Three Sister point area of Antarctica was named in her honour. [5]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lichenology</span> Branch of mycology that studies lichens

Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga with a filamentous fungus.

Wanda Zabłocka was a Polish botanist, phytopathologist and mycologist. She was a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (1954–1970). Zabłocka was the author of mycology and phytopathology works, including mycorrhiza of Viola. She is also the author of several books about fungi for the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences</span>

The Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany in Kraków, Poland is a major European herbarium containing a collection of over 650,000 vascular plants, bryophytes, algae, fungi, lichens, and various plant fossils. The vascular plant specimens are primarily from Central Europe with a specialization in alpine plants. The bryophytes are Polish, Antarctic and subAntarctic, and East African. The fossil plants are largely Central European. Main publications include Acta Palaeobotanica, and the Polish Botanical Journal.

Carroll William Dodge was an American mycologist and lichenologist. His major fields of study included human and mammalian parasitic fungi, lichen-associated fungi, and fungi forming subterranean sporophores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siti Aisyah Alias</span> Malaysian academic

Siti Aisah Binti Hj Alias is a Malaysian marine polar researcher and lecturer. As of August 2016, she is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the National Antarctic Research Centre (NARC) in the Malaysian Antarctic Research Programme (MARP), at the University of Malaya. Her work focuses on the physiology of marine and polar microbes and fungi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elke Mackenzie</span> British polar explorer and lichenologist

Elke Mackenzie, born Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, was a British polar explorer and botanist who specialized in the field of lichenology. Beginning her education at the Edinburgh Academy, Mackenzie later pursued botany at Edinburgh University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1933. In Operation Tabarin, a secret World War II mission to Antarctica, she identified and documented many lichen species, several of them previously unknown to science.

<i>Lecanora polytropa</i> Species of lichen found in Antarctica

Lecanora polytropa, commonly known as the granite-speck rim lichen, is a species of saxicolous lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. A small, inconspicuous species that grows in the cracks of rock surfaces, it has a cosmopolitan distribution and has been recorded on all continents, including Antarctica.

Emanuel David "Rudy" Rudolph was a botanist, lichenologist, and historian of botany. He was "the first botanist to conduct diverse experiments on the total biology of lichens in both polar regions".

Thomas Hawkes Nash III is an American lichenologist. His research is about the biology and ecology of lichens, and the effects of air pollution on plants and lichens. He is known as an authority on the family Parmeliaceae. During his long career at the Arizona State University, he helped develop the lichen herbarium into a world-class collection with over 100,000 specimens representing more than 5000 species. In 2010, the year of his retirement, he was awarded the Acharius Medal for lifetime achievements in lichenology, and the following year had a Festschrift published in his honor.

Rosmarie Honegger is a Swiss lichenologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Zurich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuël Sérusiaux</span> Belgian lichenologist

Emmanuël Sérusiaux is a Belgian lichenologist. His career, spanning more than four decades, has combined both lichenology research and political aspects of nature conservation. He spent several periods working as a researcher at the National Fund for Scientific Research and the University of Liège, the latter in which he accepted a faculty position as professor and head of the Plant Taxonomy and Conservation Biology unit. Sérusiaux also served for three non-consecutive appointments as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Government of Wallonia. He retired from both his academic and political positions in 2019.

Alfred Mycolayovych Oxner was a Ukrainian botanist and lichenologist. His research covered various areas: floristics, taxonomy, phylogenetics, phytogeography, and phytosociology. Oxner founded the National Lichenological Herbarium of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Bystrek</span> Polish botanist (1934–2020)

Jan Bystrek was a Polish botanist and professor of natural sciences. He was employed at the Department of Systematic and Geography of Plants at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University from 1956 until 2004. He published research in many fields, including botany, floristry, lichenology, systematics, environmental protection, biogeography, ecology, bioindication, and nature and landscape protection. He was involved in popularizing knowledge about nature and ecological education.

Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. He has worked at the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for more than 40 years. In 2014 Kondratyuk was awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology.

James Donald Lawrey is a biologist, specialising in lichens. He is known for leading long-term monitoring projects, taxonomy and studies of the evolution of the fungi in lichens.

Thomas George Allan Green is a lichenologist, terrestrial ecologist and botanist. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. His work particularly studies how lichens respond to extreme low temperatures and dryness, and especially how this affects photosynthesis. He has studied the ecology of Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pier Luigi Nimis</span> Italian botanist and lichenologist

Pier Luigi Nimis is Professor of Botany at the University of Trieste in Italy. He specialises in lichenology and phytogeography, including the uses of lichens as indicators of pollution and devising methods for web-based identification keys.

Ludger Kappen is an ecophysiologist, botanist and lichenologist. He was Director of the Botanic Institute and Botanical Garden at the University of Kiel, and Chairman and Director of the University's Polar Ecology Institute.

Josef Poelt was a botanist, bryologist and lichenologist. He held the chair in Systematic Botany and Plant Geography at the Free University of Berlin and then was head of the Botanical Institute and Botanical Garden of Graz University, Austria.

Shackletonia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae, they are lichenicolous, and muscicolous species and known from Antarctica and southern Patagonia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "PORTRETY BOTANIKÓW POLSKICH PORTRAITS OF POLISH BOTANISTS". Archived from the original on 2016-08-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "Polskie twarde babki - Podróże". podroze.onet.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  3. "Polish Polar Research" (PDF). www.degruyter.com/. Institute of Botany of the Jagiellonian University. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  4. Riffenburgh, Beau (2007-01-01). Encyclopedia of the Antarctic. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   9780415970242.
  5. 1 2 "Name details". Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  6. "Klub Przyjaciół Ziemi Sądeckiej". www.sadeczanie.pl. Archived from the original on 2017-04-17. Retrieved 2016-07-16.