Johann Rudolf Suter (29 March 1766,

Zofingen Zofingen (french: Zofingue) is a city in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is the capital of the district of Zofingen. Zofingen is a walled city and home of an ancient monastic settlement. History In ancient times Zofingen was a settleme ...

– 24 February 1827,

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

) was a Swiss physician,

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 ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Life

He studied natural history at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, obtaining his PhD in 1787. From 1791 to 1793, he studied medicine at

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, and after receiving his medical doctorate at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

(1794), he became a medical practitioner in his hometown of Zofingen. From 1798 to 1801, he was a member of the council for the

Helvetian Republic The Helvetic Republic (, , ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...

, and afterwards was a practicing physician and private scientist in Bern (1801–1804) and Zofingen (1811–1820). In 1820 he was appointed a professor of philosophy and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

at the Academy of Bern. He was the author of the two-volume ''Flora Helvetica'' (1802). The plant genus ''

Sutera Sutera is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about west of Caltanissetta. The area is dominated by a large monolithic rock termed "The Mountain of Sa ...

'' (family

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

) was named in his honor by German botanist

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (6 January 1757 – 16 October 1834) was a physician and botanist born in Dötlingen, Germany. He studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Erlangen, where he received his doctorate in 1778. After graduation, he pra ...

(1807).CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names
by Umberto Quattrocchi

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suter, Johann Rudolf 1766 births 1827 deaths People from Zofingen 19th-century Swiss botanists Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni University of Göttingen alumni 18th-century Swiss botanists