This biographical article is written like a résumé .(August 2021) |
Rainer W. Bussmann | |
---|---|
Born | 30 May 1967 |
Nationality | German |
Citizenship | Germany, United States |
Education | University of Bayreuth (Dr. rer. nat.) University of Tübingen (Dipl. Biol.) |
Occupation(s) | Professor of Ethnobotany and Head, Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia |
Years active | 1991-present |
Rainer W. Bussmann (Leutkirch, 30 May 1967) is a German botanist and vegetation ecologist, specializing in ethnobotany and ethnobiology, wild food plants, wild crop relatives, climate change, gastronomic botany and preservation of traditional knowledge in the Andes, the Caucasus and the Himalayas. [1] He has worked at the University of Bayreuth, University of Hawaii, [2] University of Texas, the Missouri Botanical Garden, [3] Ilia State University and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe; [4] he has founded several international non-governmental organizations, including Nature and Culture International, Saving Knowledge, [5] and Ethnomont. [6]
From 1994 to 2002 Bussmann worked as Post Doc at the University of Bayreuth developing ecological research in the mountain forests of Kenya and Ethiopia, and as scientific coordinator of the DFG (German Science Foundation) program, "Functionality in a Tropical Mountain Rainforest: Diversity, Dynamic Processes and Utility Potentials under Ecosystem Perspectives [7] [8] [9] featured in the German television documentary series "Humboldts Erben". [10] During that same time he led investigations of vegetation in the forests of East Africa, including the establishment of the Maseno University Botanical Garden. [11] Bussmann was also one of the founding participants of the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA). [12]
From 2003 to 2006 he joined the University of Hawaii (Manoa) as Scientific Director of the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, and as Associate Professor of Botany, [13] [14] focusing his research on the ecology of cloud forests and medicinal plants in northern Peru, under the Program of International Health Research Training and Health of Minorities (MHIRT) of the National Institute of Health. [15] [16] [17] During 2006-2007 he joined the Department of Geography at the University of Texas (Austin) as a visiting professor.
In 2007 he was appointed director of the William L. Brown Center, and William L. Brown Curator of Economic Botany [18] [19] at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Over the next decade, Bussmann transformed the center into an international research unit with projects on five continents, ranging from traditional ethnobotany [20] and ethnopharmacology, to regeneration ecology, the impact of climate change, Intellectual Property Rights, and the application of the "Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing in Benefits Arising from its Use". [21]
In 2017 he left the Missouri Botanical Garden to co-found a new Department of Ethnobotany at the Institute of Botany and Bakuriani Alpine Botanical Garden (BABG) at Ilia State University, Georgia (Caucasus). [22]
His standard botanical author abbreviation is Bussmann, and he has described a variety of plant species new to science. [23]
Bussmann is recognized in the archaeological and pharmacological field for the identification of a Moche hallucinogen found in many tombs and found in the ceramics and paintings of the culture in Northern Peru, the "Ulluchu". [24] [25]
As part of their research, Bussmann's group pays special attention to the rights of indigenous communities, supporting them in their actions generated the effect of global change. In the "Chácobo Ethnobotanical Project" they showed how indigenous researchers, trained in ethnobotanical methods, can carry out a study on the same level as university scientists. All project results, and translations of previous work, were delivered to the tribe, and local researchers participated as co-authors in all publications. [26] [27]
Bussmann is editor-in-chief of Ethnobotany Research and Applications, deputy editor of the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, associate editor of Ethnobiology and Conservation, academic editor of PLOS One, editor of Ethnobotany topics for the Nordic Journal of Botany, [28] and member of the editorial boards of Antibiotics, Life, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, Pleione and Nelumbo.
He has been involved in the development of professional societies in the field of ethnobotany and ethnobiology as president and member of the council of the Society for Economic Botany (2008-2020), [29] International Society for Ethnopharmacology (2010-2014), Society of Ethnobiology (2008-2011), Botanical Society of America (2008-2011), International Society of Ethnobiology (2008-2010), and holds memberships in the Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Africa, Bayerische Botanische Gesellschaft, East Africa Natural History Society, International Society of Ethnobiology, International Society for Ethnopharmacology, Society for Economic Botany, and Society of Ethnobiology. In addition to his academic work, Bussmann has co-founded several international non-governmental organizations in the areas of Biodiversity Conservation and Traditional Knowledge, including Nature and Culture International, Saving Knowledge and Etnomont. He featured in the German television documentary Secret world of herbs. [30]
Bussmann is the author of 450 peer-reviewed articles, more than 1,300 book chapters, and is the author / editor of 38 books. [36] [37] According to Elsevier, he is one of the most cited ethnobotanists and recognized among the most influential scientists worldwide. [38] He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the "Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions" book series published by Springer Nature. [39]
Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human societies.Ethnobotany integrates knowledge from botany, anthropology, ecology, and chemistry to study plant-related customs across cultures. Researchers in this field document and analyze how different societies use local flora for various purposes, including medicine, food, religious use, intoxicants, building materials, fuels and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", provided an early definition of the discipline:
Ethnobotany simply means investigating plants used by primitive societies in various parts of the world.
Ethnobiology is the multidisciplinary field of study of relationships among peoples, biota, and environments integrating many perspectives, from the social, biological, and medical sciences; along with application to conservation and sustainable development. The diversity of perspectives in ethnobiology allows for examining complex, dynamic interactions between human and natural systems.
Moneses uniflora, the one-flowered wintergreen, single delight, wax-flower, shy maiden, star of Bethlehem (Aleutians), St. Olaf's candlestick (Norway), wood nymph, or frog's reading lamp, is a plant of the family of Ericaceae, that is indigenous to moist coniferous forests in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere from Spain to Japan and across North America. It is the sole member of genus Moneses.
Cheilocostus speciosus, or crêpe ginger, is a species of flowering plant in the family Costaceae. Some botanists have now revived the synonym Hellenia speciosa for this species.
Euterpe precatoria is a tall, slender-stemmed, pinnate-leaved palm native to Central and South America and Trinidad and Tobago. E. precatoria is used commercially to produce fruits, although Euterpe oleracea is more commonly cultivated due to its larger fruits.
Nancy Jean Turner is a Canadian ethnobiologist, originally qualified in botany, who has done extensive research work with the indigenous peoples of British Columbia, the results of which she has documented in a number of books and numerous articles.
Dipteryx alata is a large, undomesticated, edible nut-bearing tree from dryish tropical lowlands in central South America belonging to the legume family, Fabaceae, from the Dipterygeae tribe in the Faboideae subfamily. It is a wild species, widespread across the Cerrado savanna in South America. The baru nut seed is a grain legume, growing in popularity in North America as a snack food.
Aerial stem modifications are modifications to the aerial stems, vegetative buds and floral buds of plants growing in different conditions and which perform functions such as climbing, protection, support, synthesis of food, or vegetative propagation. Aerial stem structures that undergo modifications to perform these special functions include tendrils, thorns, hooks, phylloclade, tuberous stems, and bulbils. The auxiliary or the terminal part of the modified structures shows their stem nature.
Botrychium onondagense is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae that is closely related to the more common Botrychium lunaria. It is known from many locations in the temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere including Europe, Russia, Canada, and the United States. It was first described in 1903, but has long been regarded as a synonym for Botrychium lunaria.
Jan Salick is an American botanist who researches the interaction between humans and plants (ethnobotany) and conservation biology. Her specialisms include alpine environments, climate change, indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge. She is a past-president of the Society for Economic Botany and holds their Distinguished Economic Botanist award. She is also Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration. In 2019 she retired as Senior Curator of Ethnobotany at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and now has emerita status.
Ina Vandebroek is an ethnobotanist working in the areas of floristics, ethnobotany and community health. Since 2005, she has worked at the New York Botanical Garden in the Institute of Economic Botany. She has worked on ethnobotanical projects in North America, the Caribbean, and South America.
Azorella atacamensis is a species of flowering plant in the genus Azorella found in Argentina and Chile.
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana is a Bolivian ethnobotanist. She investigates the use and protection of traditional knowledge of plants in indigenous communities, particularly in the Bolivian Andes. She is currently an Associated Researcher at the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andres in Bolivia. Her goal is giving them the knowledge to participate in decision-making on the conservation of their intangible cultural heritage.
Michael Jeffrey Balick is an American ethnobotanist, economic botanist, and pharmacognosist, known as a leading expert on medicinal and toxic plants, biocultural conservation and the plant family Arecaceae (palms).
Baccharis genistelloides is a species of flowering plant from the family Asteraceae. It is one of the most studied species in its genus Baccharis regarding its phytochemistry and pharmacological effects. The plant species is widely used in folk medicine.
The medical ethnobotany of India is the study of Indian medicinal plants and their traditional uses. Plants have been used in the Indian subcontinent for treatment of disease and health maintenance for thousands of years, and remain important staples of health and folk medicine for millions. Indians today utilize plants for both primary medical care and as supplementary treatment alongside modern medical science. It is estimated that 70% of rural Indians use traditional plant based remedies for primary healthcare needs. This reliance of plants for medicine is consistent with trends widely observed in the developing world, where between 65% and 80% of people use medicinal plant remedies.
Cussonia holstii is a small to medium size tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. The tree is similar in shape to a paw paw tree.
Vinca erecta is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae.
Myrianthus holstii is a plant species within the family Urticaceae. It grows either as a shrub or tree. It is considered a dioecious species but a monoecious tree has been observed.
Commelina madagascarica is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous plant in the dayflower family from Madagascar. It is commonly known as nifin'akanga in Madagascar, where it is used medicinally as an abortifacient, a galactogogue, and a treatment for conjunctivitis and acne. It is also used for ritual purposes in joro or ancestral invocation around the Lake Alaotra region.