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Josif Pančić

1814 – 1888

About

Serbian Botanist and Lecturer. Known as the "father of Serbian botany," he extensively documented the plants of Serbia, and is credited with having classified many species of plants which were unknown at that time, including the Serbian Spruce. He was born in Ugrini, near Crikvenica in present-day Serbia. In 1842 he graduated from the University of Budapest in Hungary, with a medical degree but decided to pursue a career as a botanist. In May 1846 he returned to Serbia where for the first seven years he worked as a country doctor. In 1853 he moved to Belgrade, Yugoslavia when he was first appointed adjunct professor at the Lyceum's Department of Natural History and Agronomy, then a full-time professor of Natural History and Agriculture the following year. He was a frequent lecturer at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and later became the first president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts there. For his contributions to botany, he received the Order of St. Sava, the Order of the Cross of Takovo, and the Order of the Red Cross. He died at the age of 73.