Harrie Sipman


Henricus Johannes Maria Sipman is a retired Dutch lichenologist who specialised in tropical and subtropical lichens and authored or co-authored over 250 scientific publications. He was the curator of the lichen herbarium at the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum from 1983 until his retirement in 2010. Between 1990 and 1997 he edited and distributed the exsiccata Lichenotheca Latinoamericana a museo botanico Berolinensi edita.

Early life and education

Sipman was born on 2 January 1945 in Sittard in the southern part of the Netherlands. As a schoolboy, he developed an interest in paleontology, collecting Cretaceous marine fossils from quarries in the hills surrounding his hometown. He later moved to Utrecht to study biology at Utrecht University.
His first research project at university focused on paleontology, specifically the taxonomy of Cretaceous oysters. Through meticulous analysis, he demonstrated that morphological variations previously used to identify multiple fossil oyster species were actually attributable to environmental factors and growth patterns, a conclusion that challenged existing taxonomic classifications. He later worked on a project studying the physiology of freshwater mollusks before eventually finding his true scientific passion in lichenology.

Academia

Sipman was born in 1945 in Sittard, Netherlands. He attended Utrecht University, where he studied botany. He was appointed to the Herbarium and the Institute for Systematic Botany from 1972 to 1982, where his focus was on lichenology and bryology. During this time, some of his research publications dealt with taxa from the lichen genera Cladonia and Stereocaulon, and on the Musci Anisothecium staphylinum, Campylopus and Ephemerum. His supervisor was Robbert Gradstein. He earned his PhD in 1983 after defending a thesis on the family Megalosporaceae, later published as a monograph in the Bibliotheca Lichenologica series. Afterwards he started a long career as curator of lichens in the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum.

Research career

During his career at the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Sipman specialized in tropical lichenology. He participated in numerous field expeditions, including trips to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, the Guianas, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, and the Dutch Antilles. These expeditions expanded scientific knowledge of lichen diversity in these regions, sometimes increasing the documented lichen flora of certain areas by a factor of three or more.
Sipman's professional contributions extended beyond research. He served as editor for several publications including Buxbaumiella, the International Lichenological Newsletter, and Tropical Bryology. He created identification keys and illustrations of tropical lichens that were made available online and widely used by students and researchers. He also worked on making the Mattick index accessible to the broader scientific community.
Frequent collaborators include André Aptroot, Teuvo Ahti, Paul Diederich, Mark Seaward, Emmanuël Sérusiaux and Richard Harris. Many of his publications deal with lichen floras of tropical and subtropical countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Guiana and New Guinea.

Personal

Colleagues describe Sipman as adaptable and patient during field expeditions, qualities particularly valuable when working in tropical regions with challenging conditions. He was an early adopter of technology in his field, being among the first to use GPS equipment during field work in New Guinea and purchasing a personal computer at a time when such technology was not yet widely used in his discipline. Though not particularly fond of academic conferences, he was noted to have attended more International Association for Lichenology meetings than most of his contemporaries.
Throughout his career, Sipman was known for his generosity in helping colleagues and students by identifying specimens, providing literature assistance, offering technical support with thin-layer chromatography, and contributing to the improvement of manuscripts.

Recognition

A Festschrift was dedicated to his honour in 2009, on the occasion of his 64th birthday and impending retirement. The volume includes 29 peer-reviewed contributions of various aspects of lichenology written by 50 of his colleagues. It also has a biography, a list of his scientific publications and a list of new taxa he introduced.

Eponymy

Four genera are named after Sipman:
  • Heiomasia – combines the letters Henricus Ioannes Marius Sipman
  • Sipmania
  • Sipmanidea
  • Sipmaniella .
Many species have been named in Sipman's honour. These eponyms include:
Leproloma sipmanianum ; Phacopsis falcispora var. sipmanii ; Xanthoparmelia sipmanii ; Opegrapha sipmanii ; Relicina sipmanii ; Rinodina sipmanii ; Sporopodiopsis sipmanii ; Pertusaria sipmanii ; Trichothelium sipmanii ; Bulbothrix sipmanii ; Parmotrema sipmanii ; Cladonia sipmanii ; Lecania sipmanii ; Diorygma sipmanii ; Enterographa sipmanii ; Imshaugia sipmanii ; Tricharia sipmanii ; Xanthoria sipmanii ; Bacidia sipmanii ; Buellia sipmanii ; Caloplaca sipmanii ; Chapsa sipmanii ; Herpothallon sipmanii ; Micarea sipmanii ; Pyrenula sipmanii ; Synarthothelium sipmanianum ; Zwackhiomyces sipmanii ; Lobariella sipmanii ; Remototrachyna sipmaniana ; Astrochapsa sipmanii ; Sclerococcum sipmanii ; Astrothelium sipmanii ; Endococcus sipmanii ; Pygmaeosphaera sipmaniana ; Rhizocarpon sipmanianum ; and Carbacanthographis sipmaniana.

Selected publications

A complete list of publications is given by Aptroot in the 2009 Festschrift. Some of Sipman's work includes the following:
  • Sipman, H. J. M. 2005: Líquenes de los Páramos de Costa Rica. Pp. 242-360 in: M. Kappelle & S. Horn, Páramos de Costa Rica. 786 pp.
  • Seaward, M.R.D., Sipman, H.J.M. & Sohrabi, M. 2008: A revised checklist of lichenized, lichenicolous and allied fungi for Iran. In: Türk, R., John, V. & Hauck, M.. Facetten der Flechtenforschung. Festschrift zu Ehren von Volkmar Wirth. Sauteria 15: 459 –520.