Zsolt Debreczy, 64, is Research Director of the International Dendrological Research Institute, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, a position he has held since 1990. He holds a Ph.D. in biology and began his career as curator of the higher plant collection at the Botanical Department of the Natural History Museum in Budapest, Hungary. Beginning in 1988, he spent three years as a Mercer Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. In 1991 he became Research Director of the Massachusetts-based (USA) International Dendrological Research Institute, Inc. (IDRI), and in 1994 was a founding member of the International Dendrological Foundation. He organized and led the many explorations worldwide that provided the material for Conifers Around the World.


István Rácz, 53, holds his degree in forest botany and is curator of the conifer collection at the Botanical Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. He is an associate of the International Dendrological Research Institute Inc., Massachusetts, USA and is a member of the board of the International Dendrological Foundation. He has worked with Zsolt Debreczy since 1975. With Debreczy, he was a Mercer Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University from 1988 to 1991. He participated in most of the field work that made Conifers Around the World possible, in addition to contributing the high-quality, artistic photographs and managing the background documentation.




Expedition Memories - the authors pay tribute to the hundreds of friends, volunteers and guides who assisted their field studies - organized for the Dendrological Documentation and Dendrological Atlas Project (see www.interdendr.org ) - over the past 30 years.


New Zealand, November 1998

During a"Globewatch" trip on a rainy day, while documenting some of the temperate conifers and their associated plants.




China, September 1998

With colleagues from the National Herbarium (PE), Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Beijing, on a visit to the experimental station devoted to the study and propagation of Cathaya argyrophylla, near Xinning, southern Hunan.


Mexico, September 2004

Zsolt Debreczy with local guides and helpers, and branches of Abies hidalgensis collected near Metepec, Hidalgo.




Japan, October 1997

Field work with local experts and international volunteers in the University Forest, University of Tokyo, in Hokkaido.




North America, July 1999

Officials of the Torreya State Park assisting the documentation of the Florida Nutmeg, a rare and endangered species of the southeastern flora.




Chile, January1996

With Earthwatch volunteers in front of a very old tree of Araucaria araucana, in the Conguillio National Park in the vicinity of Temuco.








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