Eleonora (Nora) Tsolakovna Gabrielian (Gabrielyan) (Armenian: Էլեոնորա Ցոլակի Գաբրիելյան; Russian: Элеонора Цолаковна Габриэлян) (born 22 February 1929) is a Soviet, Armenian born botanist, doctor of biological sciences, professor. Professor Eleonora Gabrielian is the president of the Armenian Botanical Society. She is a specialist in the fields of

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

, evolutionary morphology and anatomy of plants. She has been awarded numerous awards and prizes during her career.

Biography

Early life

Eleonora Gabrielian was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

on 22 February 1929 to Tzolak Gabrielian and Zvart Cholakian. Her mother was an English teacher, her father was an electrical engineer who was repressed in 1937, rehabilitated posthumously in 1956. In 1946, Gabrielian completed secondary school and entered the Biology and Soil Faculty of the Yerevan State University, where at that time A. L. Takhtajan was teaching. After 2 years, she transferred to the Biology and Soil Faculty of Moscow State University, where she graduated with honors in 1951. In 1952-1955, she completed her doctorate in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) at the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian: Ботанический институт им. В. Л.Комарова РАН), in the plant systematics and

department. During her doctorate studies, she met her future husband Vladislav Agababian, also a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, future professor, who would become one of the founders of the Armenian school of palynology. Under the guidance of A. L. Takhtajan, she successfully completed her

Ph. D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. thesis on "Caucasian representatives of the genus ''Sorbus'' L.".

Career

In 1955, Gabrielian returned to Armenia and entered the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia as a junior researcher in the Department of Plant Systematics and Geography. In 1960, she became a senior researcher, in 1986 a leading researcher and in 1989 the head of the department of Plant Taxonomy and Geography in the Institute of Botany. Since 1989 she has been in charge of the Department of Systematics and Geography of the Institute of Botany of the Republic of Armenia and heading a multivolume edition of the Flora of Armenia. Thanks to numerous expeditions in Armenia and other regions of the Caucasus, as well as by studying extensive materials in various herbaria worldwide, Gabrielian successfully completed in 1974 a doctoral thesis on the topic "The genus Sorbus L. of western Asia and the Himalayas". In 1978, she published the fundamental monograph "''Sorbus'' L. (Western Asia) and the Himalayas" "... which constitutes the gold fund of world literature on the systematics of flowering plants ..." (Bot. Journ. 1999. 84 (9): 133). In 1984 the book was awarded the Komarov Prize, the highest award of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Being one of the main authors of the multivolume edition of Flora of Armenia, and later heading the edition, she has always intensively continued the systematic research of numerous complex groups of plants, such as ferns, '' Scrophulariaceae'', '' Compositae'', '' Liliaceae'' and ''

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

'' families. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last volumes (9, 10, 11) of the "Flora of Armenia" were published abroad, through the publishing house Koeltz Scientific Books. During the times of the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

, she worked with botanists from multiple Western countries. At the request of prof. P. H. Davis, Gabrielian prepared a revision of the genus ''Sorbus'' L. for the multivolume edition of "Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands". Together with prof. W. Greuter, a modern catalog of '' Pteridophyta'' of the Armenian flora was compiled. Cooperation with Israeli colleagues prof. D. Zohary and O. Fragman-Sapir resulted in the publication of "Wild relatives of food crops native to Armenia and Nakhichevan" (2004) – the first detailed list of descriptions and maps of wild relatives of cultivated plants, and "Flowers of Transcaucasus and Adjacent Areas" (2008), the first scientific publication, illustrated by color photographs of plants and landscapes. At the initiative of Gabrielian, a multi-year project began in order to create a compressed, easy-to-use, single-volume edition of the Flora of Armenia in three languages (Armenian, Russian, English) for the identification of plants. Long time collaboration with

Carolyn Mugar Carolyn Mugar is an Armenian-American activist, best known for founding the Armenia Tree Project. She is a prominent member of the Mugar family of Greater Boston. Career Mugar founded the Armenia Tree Project, alongside her late husband, in 199 ...

and financial support of the

Armenia Tree Project Armenia Tree Project (ATP) is a non-profit organization based in Watertown, Massachusetts, United States, and Yerevan, Armenia, founded in 1994 by Carolyn Mugar to promote Armenia's socioeconomic development through reforestation. Since its found ...

(ATP).

Protection of the nature in Armenia

Gabrielian is the author of the first "List of rare and endangered plants of Armenia" (1979), second edition of "Red Data Book" (1988) and author and scientific advisor of the last publication of "The Red Book of Armenia" (2010). Other works include: "Nature protection in Armenia" (1988), essays on all the protected territories of Armenia, in the book "Reserves of the Caucasus" (1990). In the 1980s, together with A. L. Takhtajan, she organized a series of speeches on television, radio and in the all-Union press to prevent the construction of a pumped storage power plant on the territory of the Khosrov Reserve. She took contributed to the set up of the Erebuni Reserve. She prevented the

Artanish Artanish ( hy, Արտանիշ; az, Ardanış) is a village in the Shoghakat Municipality of the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia. The village was populated by Azerbaijanis before the exodus of Azerbaijanis from Armenia after the outbreak of the ...

Reserve from being transferred to management under the military unit of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, where it would have been used to construct a military facility. Since 2002, she has been a consultant in the two major organizations for nature protection: The Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) and WWF participating in numerous projects on the study, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources of Armenia. In 2016, in collaboration with O. Fragman-Sapir and K. Manvelyan, the book "Green Armenia" was published with notes and illustrations of representatives of Armenian flora.

Personal life

During her student years, she traveled alone, with a herbarium bag on her shoulder, walking on foot throughout the Caucasus discovering the region with a very rich flora. Later on her travels took her throughout Great Britain, the

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

, the Carpathians, Central Asia, Iran and Kamchatka. She spent 5 months in the Indian Ocean on the research vessel "Acad. Vernadsky" in 1981. A year later, she participated in the expedition organized by A. Cronquist in the United States together with A. L. Takhtajan. In 1980, in Spain ( Seville), she participated for the first time in the conference on the study of the Mediterranean flora OPTIMA. In 1989, she was elected a member of the Executive Council of the organization. Gabrielian was friends with Armenian artists such as Martiros Saryan (a portrait of her from his brush is kept in the National Gallery of Armenia),

Minas Avetisyan Minas Avetisyan (, July 20, 1928 — February 24, 1975) was an Armenian painter. Biography Minas Avetisyan was born in the village of Jajur, Soviet Armenia. His mother, Sofo, was a daughter of the priest from Kars. His father, Karapet, was a ...

, and

Haroutiun Galentz Haroutiun Galentz, ( hy, Հարություն Կալենց; March 27, 1910 in Kyurin - March 7, 1967 in Yerevan) also known as Kalents, was a prolific Armenian painter. Biography Galentz was born in Gürün, Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) ...

Scientific discoveries/publications

Selected plants named by Gabrielian

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fa ...

Galanthus ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single ...

''artjuschenkoae'' Gabrieljan in Fl. Rastitel'nost' Rast. Res. Arm. 12: 13. 1999. * Asteraceae

Amberboa ''Amberboa'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, described as a genus in 1832. Species in this genus are native to central and southwestern Asia. Species * ''Amberboa amberboi'' (L.) Tzvelev - Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzb ...

g''ubanovii'' Gabrieljan in Takhtajania 1: 37. 2011. * Asteraceae Amberboa ''takhtajanii'' Gabrieljan in Takhtajania 1: 36. 2011. * Asteraceae

Carthamus The genus ''Carthamus'', the distaff thistles, includes plants in the family Asteraceae. The group is native to Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia. The flower has been used since ancient times in the Philippines, which it has been called '' ...

''tamamschjanae'' Gabrieljan in Fl., Rast. i Rast. Res. Arm. SSR 10: 21. 1987. File:Merendera mirzoevae armenian stamp.jpg, An Armenian post stamp showing the ''Merendera mirzoevae'' Gabrieljan. File:Galanthus artjuschenkoae armenian stamp.jpg, An Armenian post stamp showing the ''Galanthus artjuschenkoae'' Gabrieljan.

Honours, decorations, awards and distinctions

Honours and awards

* Medal of the XII International Botanical Congress, Leningrad, 1975 * Certificate of Merit of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1978 * Higher (Komarov) prize of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1984 * Gold Medal of Valiant Labour of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1986 * Honorary vice-president and silver medal of XIV International Botanical Congress, Berlin, 1987 * George Soros's Foundation scholarship, Biodiversity, 1992 * Honorary Silver Plaque of Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation, Palermo, 2001 * Honorary Diploma and Prize of Russian Party of Self-government of Working People, Moscow, 2003 * First recipient of the John T.O'Connor Environmental Activist Award, 2004 * Honorary Diploma and gold medal of the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia, 2011 File:Komarov prize Eleonora Gabrielian.jpg, Komarov prize, 1984 File:George Soross Scholarship Eleonora Gabrielian.jpg, George Soross Foundation scholarship

Plant species named in honour of Gabrielian

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

Astragalus gabrielianae * Asteraceae ''Centaurea gabrieljanae'' * Asteraceae ''Cousinia gabrieljaniae'' * Brassicaceae ''Erysimum gabrielianiae'' * Caryophyllaceae ''Dianthus gabrielianae'' * Clusiaceae ''Hypericum eleonorae'' *

Hyacinthaceae Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the family ''Asparagaceae''. Scilloideae is sometimes treated as a separate family Hyacinthaceae, named after the genus '' Hyacinthus''. Scilloideae o ...

''Ornithogalum gabrielianiae'' * Liliaceae ''Gagea eleonorae'' * Papaveraceae ''Papaver gabrielianae'' * Plumbaginaceae ''Acantholimon gabrieljaniae'' *

''Bromopsis gabrielianae'' *

''Puccinellia gabrieljanae'' *

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are ''Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...

Crataegus gabrielianae *

''Pyrus gabrieljanae'' *

''Sorbus eleonorae'' *

Sorbus gabrieljanae * Scrophulariaceae Celsioverbascum gabrielianae File:Dianthus gabrielianae armenian stamp.jpg, An Armenian post stamp showing the Dianthus gabrielianae.

Bibliography

Gabrielian, E. 1978. ''The Genus Sorbus in Eastern Asia and the Himalayas''. Erevan. (in Russian).

Gabrielian, E. & Vallès Xirau, J. 1996. New data about the genus Artemisia L. (Asteraceae) in Armenia. − Willdenowia 26: 245−250. ISSN 0511-9618.

Gabrielian, E.: The genus ''Gladiolus'' ''(Iridaceae)'' in southern Transcaucasia. − Bocconea 13: 445-455. 2001. −ISSN 1120-4060.

Gabrielian, E. & Zohary, D. 2004. Wild relatives of food crops native to Armenia and Nakhichevan.

Gabrielian, E. & O. Fragman-Sapir. 2008. Flowers of the Transcaucasus, including Armenia, Eastern Turkey, southern Georgia, Azerbaijan and northern Iran. A.R.G. Gartner Verlag.

References

External links

Institute of Botany - National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

Article by the Armenian General Benevolent Union

Article by Eleonora Gabrielian about A. TakhtajanAghababyan Vladislav
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabrielian, Eleonora Living people 1929 births Scientists from Yerevan Armenian botanists Women botanists Yerevan State University alumni Moscow State University alumni