KALAHEO — Distinguished botanist and researcher Dr. Peter Karl Endress of the University of Zurich was named the 2010 recipient of the esteemed David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the National Tropical Botanical Garden announced Tuesday. As the recipient of
KALAHEO — Distinguished botanist and researcher Dr. Peter Karl Endress of the University of Zurich was named the 2010 recipient of the esteemed David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the National Tropical Botanical Garden announced Tuesday. As the recipient of the 12th annual Fairchild Medal, Dr. Endress will be recognized for his contributions to systematic botany and the study of floral microfeatures, breeding systems, and the plant family Monimiaceae, among others subjects.
The award will be presented by NTBG Director and CEO Charles “Chipper” Wichman at a black-tie dinner on Friday at NTBG’s Florida garden, The Kampong, the former estate and private garden of the award’s namesake, Dr. David Fairchild. A scientific symposium will take place on the evening of Saturday.
Upon learning he was selected to receive the esteemed Fairchild Award, Dr. Endress said it was a “wonderful, very unexpected surprise.” From his home in Switzerland, he wrote, “This is a great honor, all the more as I’m not an explorer in the classical sense. My focus is not on geographical areas but on plant groups. I explore specific relic plant groups in various tropical regions of the world.”
“NTBG has developed into an invaluable institution for research on tropical plants that benefits scientists, students, and plant enthusiasts. Because of this broad scope of the organization, it is an especially great honor to receive this medal,” wrote Endress.
Dr. Endress, who earned a masters degree and Ph.D., both with distinction, from the University of Zurich in the 1960s, has held nine positions with the University of Zurich from 1964 to the present. Since 2007 he has been Professor Emeritus. Additionally, Dr. Endress has acted as director of the Institute of Systematic Botany and Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich.
As an internationally noted authority on floral morphology and biology, Dr. Endress has spent decades advancing a better understanding of the evolutionary origin of flowering plants. Dr. Endress has conducted extensive field work from Central, South, and North America to the Indian sub-continent, China, Oceania and Papua New Guinea to Madagascar, Japan, Hawaii, the Caucasus Mountains, and across Africa.
Dr. Endress will be the twelfth recipient of the Fairchild Medal, which is awarded each year to a scientist who has demonstrated distinguished service to humanity by continuing the Fairchild’s legacy by exploring remote areas of the world, using innovative travel itineraries, conveyances or techniques to discover new plant species or cultivars; bringing into cultivation new and important plants that hold significant promise as agricultural or horticultural varieties; and playing crucial roles in the conservation of endangered plant species. Nominations are made by an international panel of botanists and plant explorers. Fairchild medalists receive a bronze medal, a cash award, and a citation commending their dedicated and adventurous exploration.
For more information visit www.ntbg.org.
• Jon Letman is the editorial and production assistant for the Publications Department at the National Tropical Botanical Garden and can be reached at jletman@ntbg.org.
