Homenatge a Pere Montserrat
L'Atzavara 15 (2007)

L. Villar. Trayectoria científica y humana del Prof. Dr. Pedro Montserrat.
L'Atzavara, 15: 5-16

Scientific and personal trajectory of Prof. Pedro Montserrat

Some comments on the personality of Prof. Pedro Montserrat allow the author to better introduce his research as an eminent botanist. Fully devoted to his work and to his family, he is 88 years old, but he has a young mentality, and an excellent memory. Along 60 years, he successively accumulated an important amount of knowledge on palinology, flora and vegetation of the Iberian Peninsula, pasture ecology and ethnoecology. He lived in Barcelona, Madrid and Jaca and travelled across Spain, Portugal, Balearic Islands and Europe. Therefore, he can analyse the Iberian plants and communities, understanding their functioning and predicting their dynamics.
He was a professor on ecology at the University of Navarra during 10 years. In 1969, he established the JACA Herbarium, nowadays the third collection in relevance of Spain. He also directed 11 theses, mainly focused on the flora and plant ecology of the Pyrenees. He published near 500 articles and books about different ecological and floristic topics. Pioneer in focusing on the concept of agroecosystems, he also highlighted the importance of topography in order to know the structure and function of mountain ecosystems and their sustainable management. He is currently one of the chief coordinators of the Atlas Florae Europaeae for Spain and one of the senior members of the Editorial Committee for the Flora Ibérica project.
From his official retirement in 1985, his work has been recognized with a number of awards and homages. Admirably, he still works at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (Jaca, Huesca) of the Spanish Council of Research (CSIC).

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