Josif Pancic
| Josif Pančić | |
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Josif Pančić
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| Born | April 17, 1814 Ugrini, Austrian Empire (now Croatia) |
| Died | February 25, 1888 (aged 73) Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia (now Serbia) |
| Residence | Belgrade |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Other names | Josip Pančić |
| Citizenship | Austrian, Serbian |
| Alma mater | University of Budapest |
| Known for | discovery of Serbian Spruce |
Josif Pančić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јосиф Панчић; April 17, 1814 – February 25, 1888) was a Serbian botanist, doctor, a famous lecturer at the Great School in Belgrade and the first president of the Serbian Royal Academy. He extensively documented the flora of Serbia, and is credited with having classified many species of plants which were unknown to the botanical community at that time. Pančić is credited for discovering the Serbian Spruce. He is regarded as the father of Serbian botany.
Pančić was born in Ugrini, near Crikvenica, at the time part of the Austrian Empire (now Croatia), the fourth son of Pavel Pančić and Margarita. The Pančić family were Bunjevac in origin. According to tradition, the Pančić family hailed from Herzegovina and settled in Ugrini in olden times.
After finishing elementary school in Gospić, he went on to the lyceum in Rijeka, and then continued classes in the Regia Academica Scientiarum in Zagreb (1830). He graduated in 1842 in Budapest in medicine. In addition to other courses, Pančić attended botany courses, taught by the then renowned botany professor, Joseph Sadler (Sadler József). Later, recalling those early lectures, he wrote:
“And since the first course in botany I started to love botany and decided to become a botanist..."
He was acquainted with the Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in Vienna who wrote him a letter of recommendation to the Serbian authorities in order to fulfill his wish to settle in the Principality of Serbia and to study its nature. In May 1846 he arrived in Serbia, and worked as a physician in rural Serbia. In 1853, he moved from Kragujevac to Belgrade when he was appointed professor of the Belgrade Lyceum (Royal Serbian Lyceum). In 1853, he introduced Mineralogy with geology at the Lyceum.
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Wikipedia