Mount Damavand, Iran, 18,550 feet
| Article in September, 2004 Jepson Globe | Special issue of Jepson Globe, 2004 | Account of 1999 trip | Account of 2002 trip | Extract from CalIran Newsletter, 2003 |
The flora of Iran is exceptionally rich, with over 8,000 species (450 of which grow nowhere else on earth). This complex plant life provides an outstanding opportunity for botanical studies involving Iran and the United States.
Dr. Fosiee Tahbaz has a dual affiliation with the University
and Jepson Herbaria of the University of California, Berkeley and
University of Tehran, College of Agriculture. In 1999, she
established the American-Iranian Botanical Program to foster
collaboration among scientists in the U.S. and Iran. To date, three
collecting expeditions with nine American botanists have occurred.
The expiditions were facilitated by Iranian botanists representing
nine differnt universities including Tehran, Mashhad Ferdowsi,
Esfahan, Tabriz, Urmieh, Guilan, Mazandaran, Razi, and Bu Ali Sina.
The American-Iranian Botanical Program is based on a
collaboration with the University of Tehran, College of Agriculture.
To continue the program (see goals, below) funding is
needed to support travel expenses and a part-time staff member. Our
goal is to raise approximately $15,000 per year for 5 years. As the
premier center for botanical research in western North America, the
University and Jepson Herbaria are ideally suited to oversee the
program. The Herbaria house over 2,000,000 plant specimens, the
largest collection of botanical specimens on the West Coast and the
largest at a public university. The Herbaria are also integral parts
of a strong academic program in systematic and conservation biology.
- Foster collaborative relations between American botanists and their Iranian counterparts, involving multiple institutions throughout both countries.
- Provide cross-training opportunities between Iranian and American botanists by organizing instructional workshops on systematic botany, herbarium curation, and laboratory techniques.
- Maintain an intellectual exchange program where US scientists send scientific publications to Iran.
- Establish a network of US scientists who will assist authors in the preparation of manuscripts for publication in American journals.
- Provide guidance for Iranian botanists and graduate students conducting botanical and ecological research.
- Arrange reciprocal collecting expeditions and scholarly exchange in general.
- Establish a comprehensive collection of Iranian plants at UC Berkeley for convenient access by American and other researchers.
- Make Iranian plant material widely available for modern botanical research (e.g., molecular phylogeny).
- Bring an appreciation of the rich and beautiful Iranian flora to the American public.
If you wish to help further the American-Iranian Botanical Program, a University research fund has been established. If you would like to learn more, please contact Dr. Fosiee Tahbaz or Dr. Staci Markos at (510) 642-2465 or email clematis@berkeley.edu.
Gifts, payable to UC Regents are tax deductible.
