Per Magnus Jørgensen (born 1944) is a Norwegian

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and lichenologist, and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of systematic botany at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

. He is known for his work on the lichen families

Pannariaceae The Pannariaceae are a family of lichens in the order Peltigerales (suborder Collematineae). Species from this family have a widespread distribution, but are especially prevalent in southern temperate In geography, the temperate clima ...

and

Collemataceae The Collemataceae are a family of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the order Peltigerales. The family contains twelve genera and about 325 species. The family has a widespread distribution. Taxonomy The family was circumscribed by Jonathan Carl Z ...

. Jørgensen was awarded the

Acharius Medal __NOTOC__ The Acharius Medal is awarded by the International Association for Lichenology (IAL) for lifetime achievement in lichenology. The organization resolved at its 1990 meeting that it would simultaneously honor professional achievement and ...

in 2021 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology.

Biography

Jørgensen was born in

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

, Norway, in 1944. He obtained his

Candidatus realium Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

from the

in 1969, where Knut Fægri was his supervisor. In 1978, he earned a doctor philosophiae from

, with a dissertation titled "The lichen family Pannariaceae in Europe". He was a student of prominent lichenologist

Rolf Santesson Rolf Santesson (1916–2013) was a Swedish lichenologist and university lecturer. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Early life and education Santesson was born in 1916 in Trollhättan, Sw ...

;

Gunnar Degelius Gunnar Bror Fritiof Degelius (né Nilsson until 1932; 27 January 1903 – 22 July 1993) was a Swedish lichenologist. Between the publications of his first and final scientific papers, Degelius had a 70-year-long research career. While he was b ...

was another early mentor. During his time as a student, he was recruited to work at the Botanical Garden in Bergen. A few years after receiving his doctorate, he was appointed

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Systematic Botany at the University of Bergen in 1982. He was known for delivering his university lectures with great enthusiasm, and for helping to popularize botany in Norway. As of 2020, he is a

at the University of Bergen. Jørgensen is a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

. He has about 300 publications dealing with the

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

floristics Floristics is the study of plants of geographical regions. It is a branch of phytogeography, which technically makes it a branch of botany, geography, and a subbranch of biogeography. Harvard University has a history of research with early contr ...

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

, and

nomenclature Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. (The theoretical field studying nomenclature is sometimes referred to as ''onymology'' or ''taxonymy'' ). The principl ...

of lichens; in these papers he described about 300

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

new to science. A specialist of the family

, he has also written about several other

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

in the third volume of the ''Nordic Lichen Flora''. More recently, he has published several works about the history of lichenology. Examples include books on the history of botany in Norway, and on the history of Bergen's Museumgarden, and publications on

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

and Johan Ernst Gunnerus, including translating the latter's 1770 work ''Flora Norvegica'' from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

into Norwegian. Jørgensen is a connoisseur of the plant genus ''

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

'' and maintains a large collection of these plants in the Bergen botanical garden. He was editor of the

popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

magazine '' Naturen'' from 1991 to 1997. Jørgensen became an honorary lifetime member of the British Lichen Society in 2008. In 2021 Jørgensen was awarded the

, recognizing his lifelong contribution to lichenology. Lichen

named in honour of Jørgensen include the species '' Stigmidium joergensenii'' , '' Leptogium joergensenii'' , and the genus '' Joergensenia'' .

Selected publications

* * * * * * *

References

Cited literature

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jørgensen, Per Magnus 1944 births 20th-century Norwegian botanists Norwegian lichenologists Norwegian taxonomists Living people Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters People from Stavanger University of Bergen alumni Uppsala University alumni Academic staff of the University of Bergen 21st-century Norwegian botanists Acharius Medal recipients

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References

Cited literature