Igor Germanovich Levichev (in connection with the 70th anniversary)

October 6, 2015 Igor Germanovich Levichev, Ph. D., Senior Researcher of the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, celebrated his 70th birthday. He is widely known monograph of the large genus Gagea and its related genera as well as the author of the original hypothesis in the evolution of morphological structures of monocots. His scientific career began with expeditions to Chukotka, Kamchatka, in the Trans-Baikal region, Kyzylkum (Uzbekistan), Badkhyz Nature Reserve (Turkmenistan, 1972). Since the autumn of 1972, I. G. Levichev worked in Chatkal nature reserve (Uzbekistan), where he created the basis for the monitoring of vegetation changes in two key areas of relatively little changed Uzbek part of the Western Tien Shan. He worked on the creation of “The Red Book of Uzbek SSR” (1984), “Guide to the Plants of Central Asia. Critical synopsis of Flora “(1987). In 1996 he defended his thesis on the topic “Genus Gagea Salisb. of Western Tien Shan “. In collaboration with colleges from German, Italian and other countries I. G. Levichev published a number of interesting results of molecular phylogenetic studies of the genus Gagea (and its related genera). He also described a new genus – Kharkevichia Levichev of Lloydia – Gagea relationship (the family Liliaceae.). Igor Germanovich is the au­thor of over 120 scientific (scientific and popular) works, 53 of them are in fact of Gagea species.</p