Dharani Dhar Awasthi (28 September 1922, Naret village,

Pithoragarh District Pithoragarh district is the easternmost district in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located in the Himalayas and has an area of and a population of 483,439 (as of 2011). The city of Pithoragarh, located in Saur Valley, is its headquarters. Th ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

– 21 August 2011, Lucknow) (This 2012 article erroneously states the year in which Awashti received his first Ph.D.) was an Indian botanist, taxonomist, and lichenologist, often given the appellation "Father of Indian Lichenology".

Education and career

Awasthi graduated in botany from the

University of Lucknow University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is one of the oldest public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. LU's main campus is located at Badshah Bagh, University Road area of the city with a second ...

with B.Sc. in 1943 and M.Sc. in 1945. From 1945 to 1946 he was a research assistant in the University of Lucknow's department of botany. From 1946 to 1948 he worked at

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

's Botanical Garden and Herbarium in a stipendiary training programme in systematic botany and taxonomy. In 1947 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Lucknow. His doctoral advisor was Sachindra Nath Das Gupta (1902–1990). From 1948 to 1952 Awasthi worked as a botanical assistant at Lucknow's

National Botanical Research Institute The National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) is a research institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is engaged in the field of taxonomy and modern biology. History Or ...

(NBRI). From 1952 until the end of his career he was (except for sabbaticals) a faculty member in the University of Lucknow's botany department. With support from the

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

he studied from 1960 to 1963 in the US for advanced training in lichenology under

William Alfred Weber William Alfred Weber (November 16, 1918 – March 18, 2020) was an American botanist and lichenologist. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder and former curator of the University of Colorado Museum Herbarium (Index H ...

at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

. There in 1963 Awasthi received his second Ph.D. In 1963 he returned to the University of Lucknow. During his career there he was the doctoral advisor for eight Ph.D. students, including Dalip Kumar Upreti. At the University of Lucknow, when Awasthi was superannuated in the 1990s, Lucknow's pioneering school of lichenology was closed, but his students flourished in various universities and institutions. The lichen genera '' Awasthiella'' and ''Awasthia'', as well as several lichen species, are named in his honour.

Awards and honours

* 1978 — Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

* 1984 — Fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

* 1991 — Professor P Maheshwari Lecture Award of the Indian National Science Academy * 1992 —

Acharius Medal __NOTOC__ The Acharius Medal is awarded by the International Association for Lichenology (IAL) for lifetime achievement in lichenology. The organization resolved at its 1990 meeting that it would simultaneously honor professional achievement and ...

of the International Association of Lichenology * 1993 — Honorary Member of the British Lichen Society * 2011 — Dharani Dhar Awasthi Award established by the International Association for Lichenology to be given to a "prominent young researcher working and living in a low income country, who has completed a Ph.D. within five years prior to the submission deadline"

Selected publications

Articles

* * * * * * *

Books and monographs

* * * * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Awasthi, Dharani Dhar 1922 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Indian botanists 21st-century Indian botanists Indian lichenologists University of Lucknow alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni Academic staff of the University of Lucknow Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy People from Pithoragarh district Acharius Medal recipients Indian expatriate academics in the United States