Abraham Erasmus van Wyk
South African botanist
Abraham Erasmus van Wyk, also known as Braam van Wyk (born 1952, Wolmaransstad) is a South African plant taxonomist. He has been responsible for the training of a significant percentage of the active plant taxonomists in South Africa and has also produced the first electronic application (app) for the identification of trees in southern Africa.
Education and career
Van Wyk was born in 1952 in Wolmaransstad, North-West Province, South Africa and grew up on a maize (corn) and cattle farm. In 1973, he completed a BSc (Botany, Zoology, Physiology) at Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PCHO), followed by a BSc (Hons) in 1974, a Higher Diploma in Education in 1976 and a MSc (Botany) in 1977 (supervised by DJ Botha). All of the degrees he completed at PCHO with obtained with distinction. He then went on to the University of Pretoria where he obtained his PhD in botany with a thesis on the classification of the genus Eugenia (Myrtaceae) in southern Africa.
Since 1977 he has been associated with the botany department of the University of Pretoria, where in 1989 he was appointed Professor of Botany and Curator of the H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium of the university.
He has presented many academic and public lectures and courses on a variety of botanical topics. He has also regularly contributed to the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET) project. Van Wyk enjoys making biology accessible to the public and has participated in a weekly science programme on radio for 18 years.
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