Fredrik Christian Emil Børgesen (1 January 1866 – 22 March 1956) belonged to a prosperous Copenhagen family with a strong clannishness and well-managed finances, this made him a researcher independent of salary and promotion.
Fredrik Christian Emil Børgesen
His first major algal flora was that of "Danish West Indies" (1913-1929) included over 700 pages and 600 beautiful drawings, became the classical investigation of tropical seaweeds. It was appreciated for a detailed investigation of morphology, anatomy, and cytology. Later, he became a librarian at the Library of the Botanical Garden (1900–1935). Børgesen further made investigations of marine algae e.g. around Mauritius, the Canary Islands, and the Antilles.
In winter 1927-28 he was invited by the University of Bombay to study the marine algal flora of India. He investigated seaweeds of Bombay, Dwarka, Okha, Tuticorin, and Karachi (now in Pakistan). While visiting Galle in Sri Lanka his friend and contemporary phycologist Prof. M. O. P. Iyengar accompanied him. Prof. Iyengar placed all his collections from South India at his disposal. A series of publications appeared from this investigation. Børgesen described many new genera Mesothamnion, Cottoniella, Coelothrix, Coelanthrum, Platysiphonia, Stichothamnion, Spirocladia, Ceramiella, Tenaciphyllum, Rosenvingea, Hamelella, Vladophoropsis, Ernodesmis, Valoniopsis, Willella, Pseudochlorodesmis, and Geppella to name a few.
It may be noted that all these are taxonomically valid even today despite the implementation of the molecular systematics approach shows the worth of his knowledge. He described the brown algal genus Iyengaria to honor his friend Prof. Iyengar. Further, two genera namely Boergesenia (green) and Boergeseniella (red) were erected in his name by J. Feldmann and Harald Kylin.
Today all his collection is housed in The Natural History Museum of Denmark. Besides, strong taxonomic contribution his ecological-phytogeographical approach for understanding the distribution of seaweeds became a model for subsequent years including today.
Data compiled by: Dr. Vaibhav A. Mantri, Principal Scientist & Divisional Chair, CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.
Source Credit: "Prominent Phycologists of the 20th Century" by David J Garbary and Michael J. Wynne (Eds)
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