Biography
Early life
Eleonora Gabrielian was born inCareer
In 1955, Gabrielian returned to Armenia and entered the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia as a junior researcher in the Department of Plant Systematics and Geography. In 1960, she became a senior researcher, in 1986 a leading researcher and in 1989 the head of the department of Plant taxonomy, Plant Taxonomy and Geography in the Institute of Botany. Since 1989 she has been in charge of the Department of Systematics and Geography of the Institute of Botany of the Republic of Armenia and heading a multivolume edition of the Flora of Armenia. Thanks to numerous expeditions in Armenia and other regions of the Caucasus, as well as by studying extensive materials in various herbaria worldwide, Gabrielian successfully completed in 1974 a doctoral thesis on the topic "The genus Sorbus L. of western Asia and the Himalayas". In 1978, she published the fundamental monograph "''Sorbus'' L. (Western Asia) and the Himalayas" "... which constitutes the gold fund of world literature on the systematics of flowering plants ..." (Bot. Journ. 1999. 84 (9): 133). In 1984 the book was awarded the Komarov Prize, the highest award of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Being one of the main authors of the multivolume edition of Flora of Armenia, and later heading the edition, she has always intensively continued the systematic research of numerous complex groups of plants, such as ferns, ''Scrophulariaceae'', ''Asteraceae, Compositae'', ''Liliaceae'' and ''Poaceae'' families. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last volumes (9, 10, 11) of the "Flora of Armenia" were published abroad, through the publishing house Koeltz Scientific Books. During the times of the Iron Curtain, she worked with botanists from multiple Western countries. At the request of Peter Hadland Davis, prof. P. H. Davis, Gabrielian prepared a revision of the genus ''Sorbus'' L. for the multivolume edition of "Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Sea, Aegean Islands". Together with Werner Greuter, prof. W. Greuter, a modern catalog of ''Pteridophyte, Pteridophyta'' of the Armenian flora was compiled. Cooperation with Israeli colleagues prof. D. Zohary and O. Fragman-Sapir resulted in the publication of "Wild relatives of food crops native to Armenia and Nakhichevan" (2004) – the first detailed list of descriptions and maps of wild relatives of cultivated plants, and "Flowers of Transcaucasus and Adjacent Areas" (2008), the first scientific publication, illustrated by color photographs of plants and landscapes. At the initiative of Gabrielian, a multi-year project began in order to create a compressed, easy-to-use, single-volume edition of the Flora of Armenia in three languages (Armenian, Russian, English) for the identification of plants. Long time collaboration with Carolyn Mugar and financial support of the Armenia Tree Project (ATP).Protection of the nature in Armenia
Gabrielian is the author of the first "List of rare and endangered plants of Armenia" (1979), second edition of "Red Data Book" (1988) and author and scientific advisor of the last publication of "The Red Book of Armenia" (2010). Other works include: "Nature protection in Armenia" (1988), essays on all the protected territories of Armenia, in the book "Reserves of the Caucasus" (1990). In the 1980s, together with A. L. Takhtajan, she organized a series of speeches on television, radio and in the all-Union press to prevent the construction of a pumped storage power plant on the territory of the Khosrov Forest State Reserve, Khosrov Reserve. She took contributed to the set up of the Erebuni District, Erebuni Reserve. She prevented the Artanish Reserve from being transferred to management under the military unit of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, where it would have been used to construct a military facility. Since 2002, she has been a consultant in the two major organizations for nature protection: The Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) and WWF participating in numerous projects on the study, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources of Armenia. In 2016, in collaboration with O. Fragman-Sapir and K. Manvelyan, the book "Green Armenia" was published with notes and illustrations of representatives of Armenian flora.Personal life
During her student years, she traveled alone, with a herbarium bag on her shoulder, walking on foot throughout the Caucasus discovering the region with a very rich flora. Later on her travels took her throughout Great Britain, the Baltic states, the Carpathians, Central Asia, Iran and Kamchatka. She spent 5 months in the Indian Ocean on the research vessel "Acad. Vernadsky" in 1981. A year later, she participated in the expedition organized by Arthur Cronquist, A. Cronquist in the United States together with A. L. Takhtajan. In 1980, in Spain (Seville), she participated for the first time in the conference on the study of the Mediterranean flora OPTIMA. In 1989, she was elected a member of the Executive Council of the organization. Gabrielian was friends with Armenian artists such as Martiros Saryan (a portrait of her from his brush is kept in the National Gallery of Armenia), Minas Avetisyan, and Haroutiun Galentz.Scientific discoveries/publications
Selected plants named by Gabrielian
* Amaryllidaceae Galanthus ''artjuschenkoae'' Gabrieljan in Fl. Rastitel'nost' Rast. Res. Arm. 12: 13. 1999. * Asteraceae Amberboa g''ubanovii'' Gabrieljan in Takhtajania 1: 37. 2011. * Asteraceae Amberboa ''takhtajanii'' Gabrieljan in Takhtajania 1: 36. 2011. * Asteraceae Carthamus ''tamamschjanae'' Gabrieljan in Fl., Rast. i Rast. Res. Arm. SSR 10: 21. 1987.Honours, decorations, awards and distinctions
Honours and awards
* Medal of the XII International Botanical Congress, Leningrad, 1975 * Certificate of Merit of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1978 * Higher (Komarov) prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1984 * Gold Medal of Valiant Labour of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1986 * Honorary vice-president and silver medal of XIV International Botanical Congress, Berlin, 1987 * George Soros's Foundation scholarship, Biodiversity, 1992 * Honorary Silver Plaque of Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation, Palermo, 2001 * Honorary Diploma and Prize of Russian Party of Self-government of Working People, Moscow, 2003 * First recipient of the John T.O'Connor Environmental Activist Award, 2004 * Honorary Diploma and gold medal of the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia, 2011Plant species named in honour of Gabrielian
*Fabaceae Astragalus gabrielianae *Asteraceae ''Centaurea gabrieljanae'' *Asteraceae ''Cousinia gabrieljaniae'' *Brassicaceae ''Erysimum gabrielianiae'' *Caryophyllaceae ''Dianthus gabrielianae'' *Clusiaceae ''Hypericum eleonorae'' *Scilloideae, Hyacinthaceae ''Ornithogalum gabrielianiae'' *Liliaceae ''Gagea eleonorae'' *Papaveraceae ''Papaver gabrielianae'' * Plumbaginaceae ''Acantholimon gabrieljaniae'' *Poaceae ''Bromopsis gabrielianae'' *Poaceae ''Puccinellia gabrieljanae'' *Rosaceae Crataegus gabrielianae *Rosaceae ''Pyrus gabrieljanae'' * Rosaceae ''Sorbus eleonorae'' *Rosaceae Sorbus gabrieljanae *Scrophulariaceae Celsioverbascum gabrielianaeSee also
* Armen Takhtajan * Martiros Saryan * Haroutiun GalentzBibliography
References
External links