Clusius Chair

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As from September 1, 2009, Dr. Nicolas Robin has been appointed by the Clusius Foundation as Visiting Research Professor at the University of Leiden. Nicolas Robin (Rennes, 1977) will research the role of the internationally renowned Hortus Botanicus of Leiden in the 17th and 18th century with regard to the development of experimental botanical sciences.

Until now the historical significance of the Hortus Botanicus was mainly considered from the viewpoint of the development of systematic botany as a descriptive science and as such as an indispensable aid in the training of students of medicine and pharmacy. Its role in the experimentation with plants has not received due attention.

Nicolas Robin will have his base at the Scaliger Institute and will perform his research of historical sources in the archives and tomes of the University Library, the Dutch National Herbarium and the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden. He will also be actively involved in the educational programme of the department of Art History of the Faculty of the Humanities.

Robin combines his function in Leiden with that as assistant for cultural history and didactics of biology and academic coordinator of the research group ExMNU at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany. Dr. Nicolas Robin was formerly employed as assistant professor in history of biology at the Institute “Ernst-Haeckel” at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena.




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