- Simon Schwendener
Simon Schwendener (
February 10 ,1829 -May 27 ,1919 ) was a Swissbotanist who was a native of Buchs in theCanton of St. Gallen . In 1856 he received his doctorate at theUniversity of Zurich , where afterwards he was an assistant toCarl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817-1891). In 1860 he became a professor of botany attheUniversity of Munich , and in 1867 a professor of botany and director of theBotanical Gardens inBasel . In 1877 he succeededWilhelm Hofmeister (1824-1877) as professor of botany at theUniversity of Tübingen , and from 1878 until his retirement in 1910, Schwendener was a professor at theUniversity of Berlin .Simon Schwendener is remembered for his investigations of
plant anatomy and physiology. He took a mechanistic approach to his botanical studies, and believed that a plant's anatomical structure conformed to principles of mechanics, and maintained that there was an inter-relationship between the construction and functionality of a plant's tissues. He also did extensive research concerning the mechanics ofsap ascent, the construction of a leaf'spulvinus , the positioning of a plants' leaves, and the inner-workings betweenstomata and itsguard cells .In 1867 Schwendener announced to the scientific world his hypothesis that
lichen was formed by two separate organisms, afungus and analga . At the time his theory was largely rejected, but afterwards proven to be factual. During his long career he had several renowned students and assistants, includingCarl Correns ,Gottlieb Haberlandt ,Richard Kolkwitz , Emil Heinricher andOtto Heinrich Warburg .References
* [http://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/html/14SchwendenerCV.html Life and Work of Simon Schwendener]
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