Maximilian Weigend (born September 25, 1969, in Erbendorf) is a German botanist. His

botanical author abbreviation In botanical nomenclature, author citation is the way of citing the person or group of people who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the ''International Cod ...

is "Weigend". As a student, Weigend received first prize in 1987 and 1989 as part of the Federal President's history competition on the subject of environmental history and in 1992 from the South African Phycological Society for his studies on the

phytochemistry Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and ...

of South African

macroalgae Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as k ...

. In 1993 he graduated from the South African University of Natal-Pietermaritzburg and then moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. As part of his research, he traveled to Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru before commencing in July 1997 with his dissertation ''Nasa and the conquest of South America – Systematic Rearrangements in Loasaceae Juss''. He received his doctorate degree magna cum laude. As part of this work, Weigend presented a complete revision of the flower nettle family ('' Loasaceae'') and re-described numerous genera and species, but due to a technical error the taxa had to be revalidated in 2006. International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Vienna Code), Art. 30.5, Ex. 10
Online
/ref> He received several awards for his dissertation. From 1999, Weigend began research on the genera '' Ribes'' and ''

Desfontainia ''Desfontainia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Columelliaceae, though it was placed formerly in Loganiaceae, Potaliaceae (later subsumed in Gentianaceae), or a family of its own, Desfontainiaceae. The genus was named for the Fre ...

''; in 2000 he became an assistant professor at the Institute for Systematic Botany and Phytogeography at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. In 2011 he was appointed to the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, where he succeeded Wilhelm Barthlott as director of the

Botanical Garden, Bonn Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), 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 ...

. Since then he has also been deputy director of the Nees Institute for Plant Biodiversity. Weigend has edited the ''Loasaceae'' for several standard works, such as in 2001 for the '' Flora de Colombia'' and in 2004 for the sixth volume of the ''

Families and Genera of Vascular Plants Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...

''. Weigend is married and the father of two children.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weigend, Maximilian 1969 births Living people German botanists 20th-century botanists 21st-century botanists People from the Upper Palatinate Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin