Thomas Robert Soderstrom (9 January 1936

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– 1 September 1987) was an American agrostologist His special field of study was the grass family

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

Poaceae Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivate ...

. He was Curator of Grasses at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

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for some twenty years. In 1957 Soderstrom graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

with a BSc in Biology, and enrolled at the graduate school at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, earning a Master of Science in Biology the following year and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Botany 1961. He joined the National Museum in 1960 as assistant curator. He became an authority on the taxonomy and biology of bamboos, publishing about 40 titles and undertaking lecture tours in numerous countries, most notably at the 1985 International Bamboo Conference held in

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. His field work covered parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Not only was he a founder member of the Association of Tropical Biology, but was also a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and an honorary associate of the Botanical Society of Brazil. Despite poor health he undertook the organising of the First International Grass Symposium held at the Smithsonian in July 1986. A collaborator of his was Cleofé E. Calderón (1929–2007), the Argentinian-born agrostologist. He is commemorated in '' Soderstromia'', ''Ilex soderstromii'', ''Anthurium soderstromii'', ''Lessingianthus soderstromii'', ''Vriesea soderstromii'', ''Ouratea soderstromii'', ''Cryptochloa soderstromii'', ''Ocellochloa soderstromii'', ''Poa soderstromii'', ''Raddia soderstromii''.

Some publications

* Soderstrom, TR; FO Zuloaga. 1989. ''A revision of the genus Olyra and the new segregate genus Parodiolyra (Poaceae, Bambusoideae, Olyreae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iv, 79 * Judziewicz, EJ; TR Soderstrom. 1989. ''Morphological, anatomical, and taxonomic studies in Anomochloa and Streptochaeta (Poaceae, Bambusoideae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iii, 52 * Soderstrom, TR; RP Ellis; EJ Judziewicz. 1989. ''The Phareae & Streptogyneae (Poaceae) of Sri Lanka : a morphological-anatomical study''. 27 pp. 8 fig. * Soderstrom, TR. 1987. ''Grass Systematics & Evolution''. Ed. Smithsonian. 4to, pp. xiv, 473. * Zuloaga, FO; TR Soderstrom. 1985. ''Classification of the outlying species of New World Panicum (Poaceae: Paniceae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. Contrib.Botany Nº 59: pp. 1–63, 25 fig. 2 tablas * Sendulsky, T; TR Soderstrom. 1984. ''Revision of the South American genus Otachyrium (Poaceae, Panicoideae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. * Calderon, CE; TR Soderstrom. 1973. '' Morphological & anatomical considerations of the grass subfamily Bambusoideae based on the new genus Maclurolyra.'' Ed. Smithsonian. pp. iii, 55 * Soderstrom, TR. 1967. ''Taxonomic study of subgenus Podosemum & section Epicampes of Muhlenbergia (Gramineae)''. Ed. Smithsonian. Vol. 34, Nº 4: pp. 75–189, 14 plates * TR Soderstrom, RP Ellis. 1987. ''The position of bamboo genera and allies in a system of grass classification'' *TR Soderstrom, CE Calderón. 1971. ''Insect pollination in tropical rain forest grasses''. Biotropica, 1-16 1971 *''Some evolutionary trends in the Bambusoideae (Poaceae)'' TR Soderstrom Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 15-47 1981 *''Morphological and anatomical considerations of the grass subfamily Bambusoideae based on the new genus Maclurolyra'' CE Calderón, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 11, 1-55 1973 *''A commentary on the bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae)'' TR Soderstrom, CE Calderon Biotropica, 161-172 1979 *''The genera of Bambusoideae (Poaceae) of the American continent: keys and comments'' CE Calderón, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Institution Press 1980 *''Primitive forest grasses and evolution of the Bambusoideae'' TR Soderstrom, CE Calderón Biotropica, 141-153 1974 *''Distribution patterns of neotropical bamboos'' TR Soderstrom, EJ Judziewicz, LG Clark Proceedings of a workshop on neotropical distribution patterns. Held, 12-16 1987 *''Chromosome numbers of some Ceylon grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom Canadian Journal of Botany 52 (5), 1075-1090 1974 *''Chromosome numbers of tropical American grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom American Journal of Botany, 676-683 1967 *''Grass systematics and evolution: an international symposium held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, July 27–31, 1986'' TR Soderstrom International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution, Smithsonian 1987 *''A revision of the genus Olyra and the new segregate genus Parodiolyra (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae)'' TR Soderstrom, FO Zuloaga Smithsonian contributions to botany 69, 1-79 1989 *''Taxonomic study of subgenus Podosemum and section Epicampes of Muhlenbergia (Gramineae)'' TR Soderstrom Contrib. US Nat. Herb 34, 75-189 1967 *''The woody bamboos (Poaceae: Bambuseae) of Sri Lanka: A morphological-anatomical study'' TR Soderstrom, RP Ellis Smithsonian contributions to Botany 72, 1-75 1988 *''Classification of the outlying species of new world Panicum (Poaceae: Paniceae)'' FO Zuloaga, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 59, 1-63 1985 *''A guide to collecting bamboos'' TR Soderstrom, SM Young Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 128-136 1983 *''Morphological, Anatomical, and Taxonomic Studies in Anomochloa and Streptochaeta (Poaceae, Bambusoideae)'' EJ Judziewicz, TR Soderstrom Smithsonian institution press 1989 *''Chromosome numbers of some Mexican and Colombian grasses'' FW Gould, TR Soderstrom Canadian Journal of Botany 48 (9), 1633-1639 1970 *''Observations on a fire-adapted bamboo of the Brazilian cerrado, Actinocladum verticillatum (Poaceae: Bambusoideae)'' TR Soderstrom American Journal of Botany, 1200-1211 1981 *''Two new genera of Brazilian bamboos related to Guadua (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae)'' TR Soderstrom, X Londoño American Journal of Botany, 27-39 1987

External links

Bromeliad Society Bulletin

''Bamboo Systematics:Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'' - Thomas R. Soderstrom

Citation list''Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World'' - F. A. McClure

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soderstrom, Thomas Robert Agrostologists 1936 births 1987 deaths University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century American botanists