UB hosts an exhibition about Pius Font i Quer, a model for botanists

The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m.
The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m.
Research
(14/10/2014)

Pius Font i Quer (1888-1964). Un nou paradigma de la botànica catalana”is the title of the exhibition that pays tribute to this important Catalan botanist on the 50th anniversary of his death. The exhibition can be visited at the vestibule of the Historic Building from 15 October to 5 November.

The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m. It is chaired by Dr Lourdes Cirlot, vice-rector for Institutional Relations and Culture of UB. The coordinators of the exhibition Dr Josep Vigo, Emeritus Professor from the Department of Plant Biology and member of the Institute for Catalan Studies, and Dr Amèlia Gòmez, professor from the Department of Natural Products, Plant Biology and Edaphology and member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), participate in the inauguration too.

The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m.
The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m.
Research
14/10/2014

Pius Font i Quer (1888-1964). Un nou paradigma de la botànica catalana”is the title of the exhibition that pays tribute to this important Catalan botanist on the 50th anniversary of his death. The exhibition can be visited at the vestibule of the Historic Building from 15 October to 5 November.

The opening of the exhibition takes place on Wednesday 15 October, at 6.30 p.m. It is chaired by Dr Lourdes Cirlot, vice-rector for Institutional Relations and Culture of UB. The coordinators of the exhibition Dr Josep Vigo, Emeritus Professor from the Department of Plant Biology and member of the Institute for Catalan Studies, and Dr Amèlia Gòmez, professor from the Department of Natural Products, Plant Biology and Edaphology and member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), participate in the inauguration too.

Founder of the modern Catalan botany school

Pius Font i Quer (1888-1964), professor of Botany at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona (UB), is considered the most important 20th century Catalan botanist. Founder of the modern Catalan botany school, he led botany in Catalonia —and Western Mediterranean countries— for the early decades of the 20th century. He is the author of some reference works, such as Diccionario de botánica (1953) and Plantas medicinales (1962). Professor Font i Quer has been a model for the following generations of naturalists, such as Ramon Margalef, Pere Montserrat and Oriol de Biolòs.

He contributed to research and scientific dissemination, and he played a major role as promoter and manager of the most relevant Catalan botany research centre comparable to the most advanced in the world at the time and in his speciality, for instance the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, which became a platform for research, documentation and training addressed to novel researchers. Moreover, Font i Quer set up important research projects on botany (flora, taxonomy, etc.); he opened new research lines on areas that remained unstudied, for instance mycology and phytosociology. He enlarged knowledge about plants and fungi in Catalonia, the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and Macaronesia. Although, he was sentenced after the Spanish Civil War and removed from his positions, his outstanding work as a naturalist has been preserved in history.

The exhibition, supported by the Office of the Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations and Culture of UB, is curated by a committee composed by experts from the Faculty of Biology, the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (CeDocBiV), the Learning and Research Resources Centre (CRAI), the IRBio and the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, among other institutions. It is important to remember that the Faculty of Pharmacy conferred its Gold Medal on Pius Font i Quer posthumously.