German botanist and taxonomist (1933–2022)
Klaus Kubitzki (3 May 1933 – 5 December 2022) was a German botanist. He was Emeritus professor in the University of Hamburg, at the Herbarium Hamburgense. He is known for his work on the systematics and biogeography of the angiosperms, particularly those of the Neotropics, and also the floristic record of the Tertiary era.[1] His plant systematic work is referred to as the Kubitzki system.[2] He was a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.[3]
Career
Kubitzki was born in Niesky, Germany and studied biology and geology at the universities of Innsbruck, Göttingen and Kiel.
His doctoral work at Kiel was in Quaternary studies (1960). He then became associate professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, southern Chile (1961–1963). He pursued further studies at University of Münster (1968), from where he proceeded to a position as lecturer at the University of Munich till 1973, and then as professor of systematic botany at the University of Hamburg (1973 to 1998).[4]
Kubitzki died on 5 December 2022, near Hamburg aged 89.[5]
Work
Kubitzki's contributions have included taxonomy, plant geography and geoecology. He made a special study of the Guayana Highland. His taxonomic work is contained in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants (1990-).[4]
