Jerzy Rzedowski Rotter (born December 27, 1926) is a Mexican
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
. His focus is on Mexican floristics, taxonomy, and ecology.
Education and personal life
He was born in
Lwów
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
, Poland (now in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
) to Arnold and Ernestyna (nee Rotter) Rzedowski.
When he was young the family was imprisoned in a
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
until World War II ended, when he and his father were liberated by the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
. They then travelled to Mexico in 1946 for a new life.
He studied for a bachelor's degree in
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
at the
Instituto Politecnico Nacional, starting in 1949, and a PhD in Botany at
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
awarded in 1961. His bachelor's thesis, on the Flora of the Pedregal de San Angel, (''Vegetación del Pedregal de San Angel, Distrito Federal, Mexico'') and doctoral thesis (''Vegetación del Estado de San Luis Potosi'') led to his scientific research career.
In 1954 Rzedowski married Graciela Calderón Díaz-Barriga.
Career
He worked at
Syntex Laboratorios Syntex SA (later Syntex Laboratories, Inc.) was a pharmaceutical company formed in Mexico City in January 1944 by Russell Marker, Emeric Somlo, and Federico Lehmann to manufacture therapeutic steroids from the Mexican yams called ''cabe ...
in 1953. From 1954 to 1959 he was appointed as a professor at
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
The Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (in es, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, UASLP) is a public university in Mexico. It is the largest, oldest, and most comprehensive university in the state of San Luis Potosí, as well as ...
and director of that University's Instituto de Investigación de Zonas Desérticas. In 1959 he moved to the Colegio de Postgraduados de Chapingo, Mexico as professor-investigator and then in 1961 was appointed as professor at the Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas del Instituto Politecnico Nacional, where he remained until 1984. He then founded the Centro Regional del Bajío, Instituto de Ecología, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
At the time he started to work on Mexican