Thomas Robert Soderstrom (9 January 1936

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

– 1 September 1987) was an American agrostologist His special field of study was the grass family

Gramineae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. He was Curator of Grasses at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

for some twenty years. In 1957 Soderstrom graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

with a BSc in Biology, and enrolled at the graduate school at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, earning a Master of Science in Biology the following year and a PhD in Botany 1961. He joined the National Museum in 1960 as assistant curator. He became an authority on the taxonomy and biology of bamboos, publishing about 40 titles and undertaking lecture tours in numerous countries, most notably at the 1985 International Bamboo Conference held in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. His field work covered parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Not only was he a founder member of the Association of Tropical Biology, but was also a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, and an honorary associate of the Botanical Society of Brazil. Despite poor health he undertook the organising of the First International Grass Symposium held at the Smithsonian in July 1986. A collaborator of his was Cleofé E. Calderón (1929–2007), the Argentinian-born agrostologist.http://www.bamboo.org/publications/e107_files/downloads/ABSJournal-vol21.pdf He is commemorated in ''

Soderstromia ''Bouteloua'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. Members of the genus are commonly known as grama grass. Taxonomy and systematics The genus was named for Claudio and Esteban Boutelou, 19th-century Spanish botanists. David Griffiths ...

'', ''Ilex soderstromii'', ''Anthurium soderstromii'', ''Lessingianthus soderstromii'', ''Vriesea soderstromii'', ''Ouratea soderstromii'', ''Cryptochloa soderstromii'', ''Ocellochloa soderstromii'', ''Poa soderstromii'', ''Raddia soderstromii''.

Some publications

* Soderstrom, TR; FO Zuloaga. 1989. ''A revision of the genus Olyra and the new segregate genus Parodiolyra (Poaceae, Bambusoideae, Olyreae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iv, 79 * Judziewicz, EJ; TR Soderstrom. 1989. ''Morphological, anatomical, and taxonomic studies in Anomochloa and Streptochaeta (Poaceae, Bambusoideae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iii, 52 * Soderstrom, TR; RP Ellis; EJ Judziewicz. 1989. ''The Phareae & Streptogyneae (Poaceae) of Sri Lanka : a morphological-anatomical study''. 27 pp. 8 fig. * Soderstrom, TR. 1987. ''Grass Systematics & Evolution''. Ed. Smithsonian. 4to, pp. xiv, 473. * Zuloaga, FO; TR Soderstrom. 1985. ''Classification of the outlying species of New World Panicum (Poaceae: Paniceae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. Contrib.Botany Nº 59: pp. 1–63, 25 fig. 2 tablas * Sendulsky, T; TR Soderstrom. 1984. ''Revision of the South American genus Otachyrium (Poaceae, Panicoideae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. * Calderon, CE; TR Soderstrom. 1973. '' Morphological & anatomical considerations of the grass subfamily Bambusoideae based on the new genus Maclurolyra.'' Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iii, 55 * Soderstrom, TR. 1967. ''Taxonomic study of subgenus Podosemum & section Epicampes of Muhlenbergia (Gramineae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. Vol. 34, Nº 4: pp. 75–189, 14 plates * TR Soderstrom, RP Ellis. 1987. ''The position of bamboo genera and allies in a system of grass classification'' *TR Soderstrom, CE Calderón. 1971. ''Insect pollination in tropical rain forest grasses''. Biotropica, 1-16 1971 *''Some evolutionary trends in the Bambusoideae (Poaceae)'' TR Soderstrom Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 15-47 1981 *''Morphological and anatomical considerations of the grass subfamily Bambusoideae based on the new genus Maclurolyra'' CE Calderón, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 11, 1-55 1973 *''A commentary on the bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae)'' TR Soderstrom, CE Calderon Biotropica, 161-172 1979 *''The genera of Bambusoideae (Poaceae) of the American continent: keys and comments'' CE Calderón, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Institution Press 1980 *''Primitive forest grasses and evolution of the Bambusoideae'' TR Soderstrom, CE Calderón Biotropica, 141-153 1974 *''Distribution patterns of neotropical bamboos'' TR Soderstrom, EJ Judziewicz, LG Clark Proceedings of a workshop on neotropical distribution patterns. Held, 12-16 1987 *''Chromosome numbers of some Ceylon grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom Canadian Journal of Botany 52 (5), 1075-1090 1974 *''Chromosome numbers of tropical American grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom American Journal of Botany, 676-683 1967 *''Grass systematics and evolution: an international symposium held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, July 27–31, 1986'' TR Soderstrom International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution, Smithsonian 1987 *''A revision of the genus Olyra and the new segregate genus Parodiolyra (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae)'' TR Soderstrom, FO Zuloaga Smithsonian contributions to botany 69, 1-79 1989 *''Taxonomic study of subgenus Podosemum and section Epicampes of Muhlenbergia (Gramineae)'' TR Soderstrom Contrib. US Nat. Herb 34, 75-189 1967 *''The woody bamboos (Poaceae: Bambuseae) of Sri Lanka: A morphological-anatomical study'' TR Soderstrom, RP Ellis Smithsonian contributions to Botany 72, 1-75 1988 *''Classification of the outlying species of new world Panicum (Poaceae: Paniceae)'' FO Zuloaga, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 59, 1-63 1985 *''A guide to collecting bamboos'' TR Soderstrom, SM Young Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 128-136 1983 *''Morphological, Anatomical, and Taxonomic Studies in Anomochloa and Streptochaeta (Poaceae, Bambusoideae)'' EJ Judziewicz, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian institution press 1989 *''Chromosome numbers of some Mexican and Colombian grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom Canadian Journal of Botany 48 (9), 1633-1639 1970 *''Observations on a fire-adapted bamboo of the Brazilian cerrado, Actinocladum verticillatum (Poaceae: Bambusoideae)'' TR Soderstrom American Journal of Botany, 1200-1211 1981 *''Two new genera of Brazilian bamboos related to Guadua (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae)'' TR Soderstrom, X Londoño American Journal of Botany, 27-39 1987

External links

Bromeliad Society Bulletin''Bamboo Systematics:Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'' - Thomas R. SoderstromCitation list''Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World'' - F. A. McClure

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soderstrom, Thomas Robert Agrostologists 1936 births 1987 deaths University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century American botanists