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 |
On July 19th, 2012, Somayyeh Kheiri, a PhD student at Azad University of Tehran, and instructor of Azad University of Garmsar, Iran, visited the University and Jepson Herbaria. The visit was arranged by Dr. Fosiee Tahbaz, Coordinator of the American-Iranian Botanical Program. Dr. Richard Moe gave her a tour of the herbarium, emphasizing the algae collection and showed her UC's diatom specimens. Dr. Brent Mishler, Director, and Andrew Doran, Administrative Curator, talked with her about her diatom research project.
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 $35,000 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.
ABOVE: Summer 2010: Three Iranian Botany Professors reunited at Malibou, California. From left to right: Dr. Mobayen, Emeritus Professor of the University of Tehran (who recently donated 500 Iranian specimens to the University and Jepson Herbaria); Dr. Tahbaz, Emerita Professor of the University of Tehran and retired Senior Museum Scientist of the UC/JEPS Herbaria, and coordinator of the AIBP; Mrs. Meimandi; Mrs. Mobayen; Dr. Meimandi Nejad, Emeritus Professor of the University of Tehran.
February 2009: Dr. M. H. Rashed (center), Professor and former Dean of the Agriculture College and Director of the Herbarium of Ferdowsi University of Mashed, Iran, visits with Dr. Fosiee Tahbaz (left) and Dr. Brent Mishler (right) at the University Herbarium in Berkeley. Dr. Rashed was one of the collaborators in the American-Iranian Botanical Program exchange in 1999. Dr. Rashed has invited Drs. Mishler and Tahbaz to visit his university in Iran.
