Susanne Renner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Susanne Sabine Reiner
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Photo of Susanne Renner
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| Born | October 5, 1954 |
| Alma mater | University of Hamburg |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Phänologie, Blütenbiologie und Rekombinationssysteme einiger zentralamazonischer Melastomataceen (1984) |
Susanne Sabine Renner is a German botanist. A botanist is a scientist who studies plants. She used to be a professor of biology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany. She also directed the Botanische Staatssammlung München (a state botanical collection) and the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg (a botanical garden).
Since January 2021, she has lived in St. Louis, USA. There, she is an Honorary Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She also works as a Research Associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
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Education and Early Career
Susanne Renner studied biology at the University of Hamburg in Germany. She earned her master's degree in 1980. Four years later, in 1984, she completed her Ph.D. from the same university. In 1992, she became qualified as a Professor in Systematic Botany. Systematic botany is the study of how plants are related to each other and how they are classified.
Professor Roles
From 1987 to 1992, Professor Renner was an associate professor at the Botanical Institute at Aarhus University in Denmark. She then became a professor at the University of Mainz in Germany from 1993 to 1996.
Later, from 1996 to 2006, she was a professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in the USA. During this time, she was also connected with the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world.
In 2003, she returned to Germany. She became a professor for systematic botany at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She also directed the Botanische Staatssammlung München, the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg, and the University Herbarium (MSB). A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens used for scientific study.
As of 2021, she holds an emeritus position at the University of Munich. This means she is a retired professor but still keeps her title. She is also an honorary professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Plant Research
Professor Renner's research focuses on many interesting things about flowering plants. She studies their phylogenetics, which is how different plant groups are related through evolution. She also looks at how plants reproduce and how they have spread across different parts of the world. She studies both plants in cool, mild areas and those in tropical, warm regions.
Plant Reproduction and Evolution
Early in her career, Professor Renner studied how plants reproduce. She also researched dioecy, which is when male and female flowers grow on separate plants. She also looked at sex chromosomes in plants, which determine if a plant will be male or female.
Tracking Plant Journeys
Professor Renner uses genetic tools to understand how plants have moved across oceans. Her work helps scientists understand how land masses separated after the breakup of Pangaea 153 million years ago. Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed a very long time ago.
She also studies where important food crops come from. For example, her research showed that watermelons originally came from the Kordofan area in northeast Africa. Before her work, many people thought they came from South Africa.
Amazing Plant and Animal Partnerships
Professor Renner has studied some incredible partnerships in nature:
- She tracked the relationship between Philidris nagasau ants and Squamellaria plants for the past 3 million years. This is a special kind of "farming" where the ants plant seeds into tree bark and later return to eat what grows.
- She also studied the co-evolution between sword-billed hummingbirds and passion flowers. Co-evolution means two species evolve together, influencing each other. These hummingbirds have very long beaks that fit perfectly into certain passion flowers. This special interaction has appeared and disappeared many times over the past 11 million years.
Plants and Bees in Cities
In cities, Professor Renner's research looks at how bees collect pollen. She also studies how planting special flower strips can attract bees. This work is very important because climate change is affecting how plants and insects interact.
Awards and Recognition
Professor Renner is a member of several important science academies. These academies recognize top scientists for their achievements.
- In 1999, she was chosen to join the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
- In 2005, she became a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
- In 2009, she was elected to the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Germany.
- In 2018, she joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 2021, she became a corresponding member of the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, which was founded in 1773.
From 2011 to 2020, she was the President of the Bavarian Botanical Society.
Personal Life
Susanne Renner is married to Robert Ricklefs. He is an American scientist who studies birds and how living things interact with their environment.
See also
In Spanish: Susanne Renner para niños
