Dr.Tarek Kapiel: The Remarkable Journey of the Fabulous Swedish Botanist Vivi Laurent-Täckholm
Academic, writer, translator, scientific editor, Assistant Professor, Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, EGYPT.
125 years since the birth of Vivi Laurent-Täckholm the Fabulous Swedish Botanist who Loved and Spent her life Serving the Flora Egypt
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Vivi Laurent-Täckholm, the Swedish botanist, children’s book writer, and international scientific star who came to Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century and contributed to the founding of the Cairo University herbarium, which is a huge scientific library containing thousands of preserved plants.
I heard the name of Vivi Täckholm, the Swedish botanist who worked as a professor of botany at Cairo University during the period from 1946 to 1978, for the first time during my study in the third year of the Bachelor of Science at the Department of Botany and Microbiology at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University.
I learned a lot about her interests, scientific and research achievements from most of her close students, who used to teach us flora and taxonomy, plant geography, and other sciences that were taught to us by professors of plant sciences from the Herbarium of Cairo University.
On my first visit to the herbarium of Cairo University, my attention was drawn to its aesthetic and artistic character, and the attractive museum touch, which drew me strongly to this beautiful world that I fell in love with.
I was also fortunate to be present for long periods in this herbarium during my work as a teaching assistant in the Botany Department at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, during my master’s degree studies, which was supervised by Professor Dr. Nabil El-Hadidi who was one of her student and who completed her career in preserving the herbarium, and completing what she and her husband started.
Despite my exact scientific specialization in the MS.c. and PhD in Flora and Plant Taxonomy, my presence among a group of professors at Cairo University Herbarium for a long time has greatly benefited me in getting to know closely these important botanical sciences, and it has benefited me greatly when I was assigned to teach these sciences during my work as an Assistant Professor in College of Arts and Sciences at Al-Baha University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where I taught all courses related to flora, plant geography, and taxonomy.
Vivi Täckholm
Vivi was born on January 7, 1898, so this year (2023) marks 125 years since the birth of “Vivi Täckholm”, who worked as a professor of botany in the Department of Botany and Microbiology at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, and she wrote a unique book on plants entitled “Flora of Egypt”, as well as she wrote a series of distinguished scientific works on plants and the history of Egypt, and the name of this lady was closely associated with Cairo University for more than 50 years, and she worked as a professor of botany for about 32 years in the herbarium.
Vivi Täckholm was recognized and respected not only as the “Dean of Egyptian Botany” but was appreciated by everyone who knew her as one of those rare research scholars and helped countless students and researchers in Egypt and abroad by giving them her vast experiences and deep knowledge in all things.
She was also gifted with an exceptional and kind personality.
Its importance to botany in the Middle East, especially Egypt, is still attested, as there is a hall in the Library of Cairo University Herbarium bearing its name, and the visitor to the herbarium will see her fingerprints everywhere.
The Faculty of Science at Cairo University also honored her by issuing a magazine bearing the name (Taeckholmia), and everyone who knew her is proud of being her student.
Those who had the pleasure of visiting her in her apartment (3 El Gergawi St., Dokki-Orman) will also remember her hospitality.
Vivi Täckholm died in May 1978 in Stockholm during a visit to Sweden and was buried in the Old Uppsala Cemetery. However, Vivi Täckholm’s greatest legacy is the tradition of love of work, the scholarship she provided to many students and colleagues, and her pioneering mark on plant sciences in Egypt, which is still recognized today.
Indeed, the biological sciences in general and Egyptian botany in particular suffered a great loss with the death of Vivi Täckholm on May 3, 1978, in Stockholm at the age of 80.
Thank’s for a fascinating article. Being a Swede I am amazed that she is not more famous or recognized here in the country where she was born. I would never have heard of her had it not been for my father, a Swedish artist who, as a young man met her in Kairo in the fifties. They apparently exchanged letters until she passed in 1978. Thank you again!
Can u send your mail