Ihsan Ali Al-Shehbaz

{{Short description|American botanist}} '''Ihsan Ali Al-Shehbaz''' (born 1939 in Iraq) is an American botanist who works as adjunct professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis and Senior Curator at Missouri Botanical Garden.<ref name="mobot">[http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/ihsan.shtml] 2008 Missouri Botanical Garden</ref> Al-Shehbaz's primary area of interest is Brassicaceae and ''The Durango Herald'' called him "a world expert on taxonomy of the family".<ref name="herald">[http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=earth&article_path=/earth/08/earth080306_2.htm] ''The Durango Herald'' "Botanists discover 2 plant species (March 6, 2008)</ref> A 2008 publication of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service called him "the world's authority on species in the genus ''Lesquerella''".<ref name="fish">[http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/recovery/5yr_rev/MoBladderpod2008.html] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Missouri Bladderpod 5-Year Review (2008)</ref> The author abbreviation "Al-Shehbaz" is attached to the numerous botanical taxa he has identified.<ref name="mobot"/><ref name="bloom">[http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/authorattributions.html] Author attributions for Southern California plant names</ref>

==Education== In 1962, Al-Shehbaz earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Baghdad University. He pursued graduate studies in the United States, gaining a Master of Science degree from Harvard University in 1969 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1973.<ref name="mobot"/><ref name="efloras">[http://www.efloras.org/person_profile.aspx?person_id=1006] Biography at efloras.org</ref>

==Career== Prior to his current professorial and curatorial position, Al-Shehbaz was a professor and director of an herbarium at Baghdad University, a professor and director of a herbarium at Sulaymaniyah University in Iraq, and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum. In 1992, Al-Shehbaz edited all botanical entries for the third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary.<ref name="efloras"/> He has worked on major projects about the ''Flora of North America'' and, with the help of the Chinese botanists, the ''Flora of China''.<ref name="harvard">[http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/editors/alshehb.htm] Flora of China Project (harvard.edu)</ref><ref name="unseen">[http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/unseengarden/science8.shtml] MBG Research: The Unseen Garden</ref><ref name="north">[http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/Review/under-prod-7_23Aug06.shtml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524133439/http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/Review/under-prod-7_23Aug06.shtml |date=2011-05-24 }} Flora of North America (harvard.edu)</ref> In regard to the latter, Al-Shehbaz said:

<blockquote>By unlocking the knowledge of China's great botanical treasures for the rest of the world, the project brings together hundreds of Chinese and Western scientists for an invaluable exchange of ideas, training, information, and plant specimens. It is an enormous advancement for systematic and applied botany ... China's plant species represent a significant percentage of the world's total. If we don't do this kind of research, how will we know what we have and how to protect it?<ref name="unseen"/></blockquote>

==Academic specialties== Al-Shehbaz's primary academic interests are the phylogeny and systematics of the family Brassicaceae, especially in the Himalayas, Central Asia, and the Americas with emphasis on the South American and Chinese members.<ref name="harvard"/><ref name="unseen"/> He also has an interest in conservation and the preservation of biological diversity. According to Al-Shehbaz, if "we want to have a peaceful world, to live in harmony, we have to know how to cooperate, both with humans and with other species."<ref name="unseen"/>

Al-Shehbaz has described ten new genera previously unknown to science.<ref name="unseen"/> He has described over four hundred plant species<ref name="mobot"/> and more than seventy of them were previously unknown.<ref name="unseen"/> Al-Shehbaz has called botanical science "a race with time to document what's there before it's gone."<ref name="unseen"/>

''Alyssum'', ''Arabidopsis'', ''Arabis'', ''Armoracia'', ''Barbarea'', ''Boechera'', ''Draba'' (of which he revised many South American members<ref name="harvard"/>), ''Erucastrum'', ''Nasturtium'', ''Raphanus'', ''Rorippa'', ''Schizopetalon'', ''Sisymbrium'', and ''Tropidocarpum'' are among the genera in which he has identified plant species. Some specific plant species Al-Shehbaz has identified include ''Cardamine lojanensis'', ''Draba ecuadoriana'', and ''Draba steyermarkii''.<ref name="mobot"/><ref name="north"/>

==Selected bibliography== *Al-Shehbaz, I. A. 2006. The genus ''Sisymbrium'' in South America, with synopses of the genera'' Chilocardamum'', ''Mostacillastrum'', ''Neuontobotrys'', and ''Polypsecadium'' (Brassicaceae). Darwiniana 44: 341–358. *Warwick, S. I., A. Francis & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2006. Brassicaceae: species checklist and database on CD-Rom. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 249–258. *Warwick, S. I. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2006. Brassicaceae: chromosome number index and database on CD-Rom. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 237–248. *Al-Shehbaz, I. A., M. A. Beilstein & E. A. Kellogg. 2006. Systematics and phylogeny of the Brassicaceae: an overview. Pl. Syst. Evol. 259: 89–120. *Beilstein, M., I. A. Al-Shehbaz & E. A. Kellogg. 2006. Brassicaceae phylogeny and trichome evolution. Am. J. Bot. 93: 607–619. *Mitchell-Olds, T., I. A. Al-Shehbaz, M. Koch & T. F. Sharbel. 2005. Crucifer evolution in the post-genomic era. Pp. 119–137 in R. J. Henry, ed., Plant Diversity and Evolution: Genotypic and Phenotypic Variation in Higher Plants. CAB International. *O'Kane, S. L., Jr. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2003. Phylogenetic position and generic limits of ''Arabidopsis'' (Brassicaceae) based on sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 90: 603–612. * Al-Shehbaz, I. A. 2003. Transfer of most North American species of ''Arabis'' to ''Boechera'' (Brassicaceae). Novon 13: 381–391. *Koch, M., I. A. Al-Shehbaz & K. Mummenhoff. 2003. Molecular systematics, evolution, and population biology in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 90: 151–171. *Appel, O. & I. A. Al-Shehbaz. 2003. Cruciferae. ''In'': K. Kubitzki (editor), Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. 5: 75–174. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shehbaz, Ihsan Ali}} Category:Iraqi botanists Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Botanists active in North America Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Category:Arnold Arboretum Category:Missouri Botanical Garden people Category:Brassicaceae Category:University of Baghdad alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of Missouri–St. Louis people Category:Iraqi emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century American botanists Category:21st-century American botanists