Vasyl Kapustyan (1942–2020) of blessed memory

Abstract

The article represents the scientific achievements and work of a Ukrainian botanist, candidate of agricultural sciences, director of the O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden (1987–2006, 2008–2012), Vasyl Kapustyan, who died on August 19, 2020, after a long illness.
Vasyl Kapustyan was born on July 24, 1942. In 1965 he graduated from the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy, and in 1972 received the degree of candidate of agricultural sciences. Since 1974, the work of Vasyl Kapustyan was associated with the O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden, where he served in 1975–1987 as deputy director and head of the sector of tropical and subtropical plants, in 1987–1997 – as director and head of the sector of tropical and subtropical plants, and from 1997 – exclusively as director of the Botanical Garden.
The scientific work of Vasyl Kapustyan was related to the introduction of tropical and subtropical plants, their conservation, and rational use. He was the author of over 80 scientific articles and monographs, the last of which was dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the botanical garden. Since the founding of the series “Introduction and Conservation of Plant Diversity” of the “Bulletin of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv”, Vasyl Kapustyan was its editor-in-chief. He was also a member of the Academic Councils of Kyiv University and Faculty of Biology, chairman of the Academic Council of the Botanical Garden, a member of the Bureau of the Council of Botanical Gardens of Ukraine, and a member of the editorial board of the international scientific journal “Plant Introduction”. He was the founder and scientific director of the Museum of the Botanical Garden History, which opened in 2004.