Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis
{{Short description|Dutch botanist (1901–1986)}}
{{family name hatnote|van Steenis|Steenis|lang=Dutch}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis
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| birth_date = 31 October 1901
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| death_date = 14 May 1986
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| fields = Botany
| workplaces = Bogor Botanical Gardens, Flora Malesiana Foundation, Royal Tropical Institute Amsterdam, National Herbarium of the Netherlands
| patrons =
| education =
| alma_mater = Utrecht University
| author_abbrev_bot = Steenis
}}
Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis (31 October 1901 – 14 May 1986) was a Dutch botanist. Van Steenis wrote many publications on the flora of the Maritime Southeast Asia region, among others about taxonomy and plant geography. Besides his expeditions in the Malay region, he also traveled in Australia and New Zealand.
Biography
Van Steenis attended high school in Utrecht from 1915 to 1920. He obtained his masters and PhD at the University of Utrecht in 1925 and 1927, respectively. From 1927 to 1946, Van Steenis was botanist at the herbarium of 's Lands Plantentuin at Buitenzorg (now Bogor).
From 1935 to 1942, he was co-editor of De Tropische Natuur, the magazine of the Dutch East Indian Natural History Society. From 1946 to 1949 he was active in the Netherlands. In 1948 and 1950, he took up Heinrich Zollinger's 1857 recognition of Malesia as a floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom, and expanded it. Van Steenis suggested and then organized Flora Malesiana, a description of the flora of Malesia.{{Cite journal |last1=Raes |first1=N. |last2=van Welzen |first2=P.C. |date=2009 |title=The demarcation and internal division of Flora Malesiana: 1857 – present |journal=Blumea |volume=54 |pages=6–8 |doi=10.3767/000651909X475888 |name-list-style=amp }}
From 1950 until his death in 1986, he was director of the Flora Malesiana Foundation. In 1951, he was appointed professor of tropical botany and plant geography on behalf of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. From 1953 he was a professor in these subjects at the University of Leiden. From 1962 to 1972 he was professor and director of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands as a successor of Herman Johannes Lam. Van Steenis was succeeded in this position by Kees Kalkman.
On 5 June 1950 he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, but cancelled his membership on 1 December of that year.{{cite web|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00003137 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502075959/https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00003137 |title=C.G.G.J. van Steenis (1901 - 1986) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |archive-date=2 May 2019}} He was also a corresponding member of the Botanical Society of America. Elected a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society in 1960.{{Cite journal|date=January 1987|title=Record of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society|journal=The Linnean|volume=3|issue=1|pages=43}}
The Van Steenis Building of the University of Leiden, the Rubiaceae genus Steenisia, and the street Cornelis van Steenishof in Oegstgeest are named after him.
{{botanist|Steenis|Steenis, Kees van}}
References
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- Kees Kalkman, C. G. G. J. van Steenis (1901–1986) in Taxon, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Nov. 1986), pp. 937–938
- Charles H. Smith, [http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/STEE1901.htm Steenis, Gijsbert Gerrit Jan Cornelis "Kees" of (Netherlands 1901-1986), phytogeography, floristics tics, conservation], 2005
- [http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/fmcollectors/s/SteenisCGGJvan.htm Steenis, Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van], at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands
- [http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/van-steenis.html Van Steenis, Kees (1901–1986)], ASBS Newsletter No. 47, June 1986
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Steenis, Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van}}
Category:20th-century Dutch explorers
Category:20th-century Dutch botanists
Category:Academic staff of Leiden University
Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences