Sten Gustaf Edvard Ahlner (18 September 1905 – 12 January 1991) was a Swedish lichenologist.

Biography

Sten Ahlner was born on 18 September in

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

, Sweden, the son of teachers Oscar Ahlner and Anna (née Karlsson). After

matriculating Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used no ...

with high marks in 1924, he entered

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

. He graduated from this university in 1930 with a

filosofie magister A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practi ...

in botany, zoology, and geography, and in 1936 with a filosofie licentiat in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. 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 ...

followed in 1948, titled ''Utbredningstyper bland nordiska barrträdslavar'' ("Distribution types among Nordic coniferous lichens"), after which Ahlner was appointed

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

plant biology Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empiri ...

. Ahlner was employed at the Botanical section of the

Swedish Museum of Natural History The Swedish Museum of Natural History (), in Stockholm, is one of two major museums of natural history in Sweden, the other one being located in Gothenburg. The museum was founded in 1819 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes bac ...

in Stockholm from 1950 to 1971, and was also a docent in botany at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

starting in 1955. He was the editor of the journal ''

Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift ''Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal on botany published by the Svenska Botaniska Föreningen since 1907. It is published five times a year. It is abstracted and indexed in BIOSIS Previews and Scopus Scopus is a ...

'' between 1952 and 1969. Ahlner authored many papers on the lichens of the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

, with an emphasis on

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

and field botany, rather than

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

. He was known for his many journeys across Sweden, Norway, and Finland, on bicycle or by

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. Historically, the term exclusively meant a similar vehicle with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle eng ...

. On these excursions he made many

scientific collection A scientific collection is a collection of items that are preserved, catalogued, and managed for the purpose of scientific study. Scientific collections dealing specifically with organisms plants, fungi, animals, insects and their remains, may al ...

s of lichens, which are now kept at the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

of Natur Historiska Riksmuseet. Regarding his personality, his colleague

Gunnar Degelius Gunnar Bror Fritiof Degelius (né Nilsson until 1932; 27 January 1903 – 22 July 1993) was a Swedish lichenologist. Between the publications of his first and final scientific papers, Degelius had a 70-year-long research career. While he was b ...

wrote "he was good-natured and sociable, natural and reliable; in his investigations very solid but conservative (as in other things)". Ahlner died in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

on 12 January 1991 after a few years of frailty caused by a hip ailment and a heart condition.

Eponyms

Several taxa have been

named after A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may mea ...

Ahlner: '' Lecidea ahlneri'' ; ''

Lichinodium ahlneri ''Lichinodium ahlneri'' is a species of filamentous lichen belonging to the family Lichinodiaceae. Described as a new species in 1963 by Aino Henssen, the specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term na ...

'' ; ''

Microcalicium ahlneri ''Microcalicium'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the order Pertusariales. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Microcaliciaceae. These taxa were circumscribed by the Finnish lichenologist Edvard August Vainio in 1927, with ''Micro ...

'' ; and '' Pannaria ahlneri'' .

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahlner, Sten 1905 births 1991 deaths Swedish lichenologists Uppsala University alumni 20th-century Swedish biologists People from Gävle