Wilhelm Barthlott

Wilhelm Barthlott.

Wilhelm Barthlott (born June 22, 1946) is a German botanist and bionics expert.

Barthlott’s areas of specialization are systematics and biodiversity research, with the main focus devoted to tropical ecosystems and the global distribution of biodiversity.

He is one of the pioneers in the field of biological and technical interfaces. Based on his systematic research on scanning electron microscopy of plant surfaces, he developed self-cleaning (lotus effect) technical surfaces and, in recent years, surfaces which permanently retain air under water. This led to a paradigm shift in particular areas of materials science and facilitated the development of superhydrophobic biomimetic surfaces. This technology has successfully been launched on the market under the trademark Lotus-Effect®.

Barthlott has been honored with various awards and prizes, e. g. the German Environment Prize (Deutscher Umweltpreis). He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature of Mainz, the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy of Sciences and Arts, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and is a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society of London.

Career

Wilhelm Barthlott studied biology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He earned his doctorate in 1973 with a dissertation subject based on systematics and biogeography of epiphytic cacti. After his habilitation he accepted a chair position at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin), where he served as the head of the Institute for Systematic Botany and Plant Geography from 1982 to 1985. In 1985 he was appointed director of the Botanical Institute and Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn). In 2003 he founded the NEES Institute for Biodiversity of Plants, to which he was subsequently appointed as Managing director. He was instrumental in the reorganization and expansion of both establishments. Barthlott retired as a University emeritus in 2011, but continues being the head of a long-run research project “Biodiversität im Wandel” (“Biodiversity in Change”), initiated by the Academy of Sciences and Literature of Mainz. He is a founding member of several national and international committees and organisations operating in the fields of biodiversity research, botanical gardens and environmental protection.

Fields of work

Biodiversity research and tropical ecology

Barthlott has done extensive research focusing on Andean South America, in particular on the taxonomy and morphology of Neotropical cacti and bromeliads, applying scanning electron microscopy to analyze their surface structures. He also studied the structure and status of the vegetation of Madagascar and tropical Western Africa, and the mechanisms for controlling and distribution of tropical biodiversity. Barthlott conducted studies on tropical model systems e. g. tropical inselbergs and epiphytes in tropical forest canopy. His recent works concentrate on the global mapping of biodiversity and its macroecological causal dependencies. In the framework of the BMBF-BIOTA-AFRICA project led by him, biodiversity patterns in Africa as a model continent are analyzed and potential impacts of climate change are investigated.

Systematics and evolution

Barthlott’s systematic and taxonomic work concentrates on the diversity of particular flowering plant lineages. It is focused on cacti and orchids and in particular on systematic characteristics of the seed coat ultra-structure. Today, molecular systematic research is a central topic of investigation in his work group.

Barthlotts studies on carnivorous plants converged systematic and ecological research. These studies led to the discovery of the first protozoan trapping plant, Genlisea. This genus also exhibits one of the highest evolutionary rates and has the smallest known genome among all flowering plants. The naming of Genlisea barthlottii pays tribute to his investigation regarding this topic. The monotypical genus Barthlottia madagascariensis and seven further species were named after him.

Interfaces

Wilhelm Barthlott was the first botanist to use high scanning electron microscopy systematically in the research of plant surfaces (since 1970). Most prominent among his results was the discovery of the self-cleaning effect of superhydrophobic micro- and nanostructured surfaces, which were technically realized with the trademark Lotus-Effect® from 1998 on. Resulting products are distributed worldwide. The patents and the trade name Lotus-Effect® are owned by the company Sto-AG.

Currently, research on biological interfaces and bionics is Barthlott’s area of central interest, mainly involving atomic force microscopy. Ongoing research areas include air-retaining surfaces on the model of the floating fern Salvinia, which is based on a complex physical principle (Salvinia®-Effect). Technical application of this effect is conceivable in shipping: By means of a reduction in frictional resistance, a 10% decrease in fuel consumption could potentially be achieved.[1]

Honors and awards

Works

Selected works biodiversity research and tropical ecology

Selected works systematics and evolution

Selected works bionics and interfaces

References

  1. ↑ Bionic coating could help ships to economize on fuel. Phys.org. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  2. ↑ "Author Query for 'Barthlott'". International Plant Names Index.

External links