Ignatz Urban

Ignatz Urban
Ignatz Urban in 1881
Born	January 7, 1848 Warburg, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	January 7, 1931 (aged 83) Berlin
Alma mater	University of Bonn, University of Berlin
Author abbrev. (botany)	Urb.

Ignatz Urban (7 January 1848 – 7 January 1931) was a German botanist. He is known for his contributions to the flora of the Caribbean and Brazil, and for his work as curator of the Berlin Botanical Garden. Born the son of a brewer, Urban showed an interest in botany as an undergraduate. He pursued further study at the University of Bonn and later at the University of Berlin where he gained a doctorate in 1873. Urban was appointed by A. W. Eichler to run the Berlin Botanical Garden and supervised its move to Dahlem. He also worked as Eichler's assistant on the Flora Brasiliensis, later succeeding him as editor. In 1884 Urban began working with Leopold Krug on his Puerto Rican collections, a collaboration would later produce the nine-volume Symbolae Antillanae, one of his most important contributions, and his 30-part Sertum Antillanum. Urban's herbarium, estimated to include 80,000 or more sheets, was destroyed when the Berlin Herbarium was bombed in 1943, during the Second World War.

Urban was born in Warburg, Province of Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1848 as the son of a prosperous brewer. He was educated at the local Gymnasium, and later in Paderborn before proceeding to the University of Bonn and then the University of Berlin. He served in the military between 1869 and 1871 (seeing action in the Franco-Prussian War) before returning to his studies. He received his doctorate in 1873 and took up a teaching position in Lichterfelde.