Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Universität
Frankfurt am Main

Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität

Personal homepage from Meike Piepenbring

 

 

The best way to know who I am and what I like to do is to have a look at the presentation of my research and teaching activities at the university of Frankfurt

(www.uni-frankfurt.de/fb15/botanik/Piepenbring/piepenbring.html).

I particularly enjoy botanical and mycological fieldwork at home or in any other part of the world accompanied by friends and colleges. My favorite places are forests, swamps and savannas in the neotropics or in East Asia, as well as botanical gardens. In the foreign countries I try to speak the respective local language and to live with local people getting in touch with their culture. I am particularly interested in ethnobotanical and ethnomycological aspects.

Teaching I intend to demonstrate the beauty of nature. Personally, I cannot understand when people are not impressed by fine flowers in a botanical garden, the strength of tropical forests and old trees, the elegance of bambu and other grasses, the huge diversity of ecological niches and structural adaptations of fungi and the cellular patterns of plant anatomy. My interest in these areas arose by my parents taking me to the forest as a child and was nourished at the universities of Cologne (1987-1989 and 1990-1991), Clermont-Ferrand (France, 1989-1990) and Tübingen (1991-2001), especially by Prof. Klaus Napp-Zinn and Prof. Franz Oberwinkler. During archaeological digs at Bordesley Abbey organized by the university of Reading around 1987, Prof. David Walsh (university of Rochester) made me discover drawings as a way to understand and document structures. Now, at the university of Frankfurt, it is up to me to raise and support students´ interest in nature. My aim is “Erkennen und Anerkennen”, recognition and appreciation of nature and its living beings.

Further interests: Tai Chi, Karate, Kung Fu, riding the bicycle, latinamerican dancing, playing music (violin, viola, kena and simponia = flutes of the andes), reading good books, hiking, good food and good chats.

 

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Piepenbring, June 04