AASP Primary Records Program

PALYNOS 26(1): p. 7-9, 2003.

Nonna R. Meyer-Melikian died of a heart attack on May 5, 2003, she was only 65. Nonna was born in Erevan, Armenia, on August 2, 1937. In 1955, at age eighteen, she enrolled in the Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences of Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU). Until her sudden death, her life had been devoted to plant science in the Department of Higher Plants at MSU.

In 1965 she obtained her candidate degree (Russian equivalent of Ph.D.) following completion of her thesis, ‘Palynological Investigations of a Range of Orders Helobiae and the family Nymphaeaceae D.C. for Systematic Paleogeography’. In 1977 she obtained her doctorate degree (Russian equivalent of professor) following completion of a paper entitled, ‘Comparative Morphological Investigations of Sporoderm Development and Ultrastructure in Gymnosperms and Ancient Angiosperms’. In 1978 she visited the palynological laboratory of Budapest University, and in 1983 she visited the palynological laboratory of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. In 1995 she became the leading researcher at the Department of Higher Plants at MSU, and in 1998, she became a professor in the same department.

As a leader of modern palynology, Nonna studied exine development in seed plants (gymnosperms and archaic angiosperms) and exine ultrastructure of fossil ferns and gymnosperms, contributing significantly to the theory of higher plant evolution. She initiated electron-microscope investigations in Russian botany, and developed a complex method for consecutive study of a single pollen grain/spore using a light microscope, scanning, and transmission electron miscroscope to study the same pollen grain. Her aeropalynological works of pollen rain dynamics and human and animal pollinoses are important for various branches of science, and these studies have also contributed specifically to the European Bank of Aeropalynological Data. Under her leadership and supervision, numerous projects have been successfully completed, including the following: ’Pollen grains of the plants growing in the territory of Russia,’ ’Pollen morphology and the origin of angiosperms,’ ’Basic morphological types of plant pollen grains from the forest-steppe of European Russia’ ’Dynamic of pollen rains and palynological monitoring,’ and ‘Palynomorphology of the family Asteraceae.’ At the time of her death she was leading a team studying Asteraceae exine morphology and ultrastructure.

She was an active member of the bureau of the Russian Palynological Committee, Committee of Professor Dissertations at Timiryasev Moscow Agricultural Academy, Co-ordinating Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Botanical Society, Russian Paleontological Society, and Moscow Society of Naturalists. She participated actively in Russian and international palynological and botanical conferences.

She was the author or co-author of more than 150 publications, including ‘Methodical basis of palynology’ (1987, with Zaklinskaya et al.), ‘Spores from the boundary of Timano-Pechora Province’ (1993, with Telnova), ‘Aeropalynological Methods’ (1999, with Severova et al.), and ‘Spores from the reproductive structures of Devonian plants’(2002, with Telnova).

An enthusiastic student of palynology and a brilliant teacher, she planted her passion for botany and palynology in the hearts of many undergraduate and graduate students. At MSU, Moscow State Teachers’ Training University, and many other universities of the former Soviet Union, her work has inspired students in classes on ‘Plant Electron Microscopy,’ ’Sporoderm Ultrastructure of Higher Plants’, and ’Exine Development in Pollen Grains and Spores’, as well as her foundation course in ’Palynology and Pollen and Spore Analysis’.

Creative, buoyant, energetic, and brilliant, Nonna was a wonderful woman who will be desperately missed by her family, her colleagues, her students, and her friends.

[A full list of Nonna’s publications will appear later this year in a special palynomorphological volume of the Bulletin of the Moscow Naturalist’s Society, dedicated to her memory.]

• 1996. Ultrastructure of pollen grains of the order Nymphaeales. Bot. Zh., vol. 81, no. 7. (with Diamandopulu, N., in Russian).
• 1996. Electron-microscopical investigations of pollen grains of the most ancient angiosperms from the Dnieper-Donetsk depression. Proceeding of XXXIV session of All-Russian Paleontological Society, Moscow. (with Voronova, N.N., in Russian).
• 1996. Dispersed Distalsulcate pollen grains from the Lower Jurassic deposits of western Siberia, Bot. Zh., vol. 81, no. 6, 22 p. (with Zavialova, N.E., in Russian).
• 1998. Electron-microscopical investigations of fossil gymnospermous pollen grains, Bot. Zh., vol. 83, no. 3. (with Afonin, S.A, Gomankov, A.V., in Russian).
• 1999. Methods of aeropalynological investigations. (with Severova E.E., Gapochka G.P., Polevova S.V., Tokarev P.I., Bovina I.Yu., in Russian) IGIRGI, Moscow. 48 p.
• 1999. Taxonomical content of the aeropalynological spectrum of Moscow. Bull. Moscow Naturalists' Society, vol. 104, 10 p. (with Severova E.E., Polevova S.V., Bovina I.Yu., in Russian).
• 1999. Pollen and spore morphology (terminology and conceptions). Proceedings of the IX Russian Palynological Conference (with Tokarev P.I., in Russian). 12 p.
• 2000. The origin and eventual evolutionary trends of the pollen grain, Bot. Zh., vol. 85, no. 7. (In Russian). Principal publications
• 1976. Some additional data on the morphology Degeneria vitiensis (Degeneriaceae), Bot. Zh., vol. 61, no. 11. (with Takhtajan, A.L., in Russian). • 2000. Exine ultrastructure of representatives of the tribe Cardueae (Compositae). Paleontol. Zh., vol. 34, suppl. 1. (with Bovina, I.Yu., Polevova, S.V., and Severova, E.E.).
• 1979. On the morphology and systematic position of the family Hydnoraceae, Bot. Zh., vol. 64, no. 12. (with Takhtajan, A.L., in Russian).
• 2000. Taxonomical content of the aeropalynological spectrum of Moscow. Bull. Moscow Naturalists' Society, vol. 105, 7 p. (with Severova E.E., Polevova S.V., Bovina I.Yu., In Russian).
• 1980. The phylogenetic significance of the development of pollen grains walls in Liliaceae, Juncaceae and Cyperaceae. (with Yarochevskaja, A.S.) In: The evolutionary significance of exine. I.K. Ferguson, J. Miller (Eds.), London.
• 2001. Evolutionary aspects of sporoderm stratification in seed plants. Proceedings of the symposium in memory of S.V.Meyen. (with Polevova, S.V., in Russian).
• 1985. Pollen morphology and systematic of the family Rafflesiaceae s.l. Bot. Zh., vol. 70, no. 2. (with Takhtajan, A.L., in Russian).
• 2001. Sporoderm development under normal and unfavorable conditions (pollen of Cichorium intybus L. and Tanacetum vulgare L.) Proceedings of the conference "Pollen for ecological indication and paleoecological reconstructions", Saint-Petersburg, 4 p. (with Polevova S.V., Severova E.E., Tekleva M.V., in Russian).
• 1987. Methods of palynology. Moscow, "Nedra" (with Zaklinskaya, E.D. et al., in Russian). • 1990. Angiosperm pollen from the Barremian and Aptian deposits of the Dnieper-Donetsk depression, Bot. Zh., no. 7. (with Voronova, N.N., in Russian).
• 2001. Developmental patterns in exines of the Asteraceae. All-Russian symposium "Physiology of ontogenesis", 5p, (with Polevova S.V., Tekleva M.V., Kosenko Ya.V., in Russian).
• 1993. Spores from the boundary of the Timano-Pechora Province. Saint Petersburg, "Nauka" (with Telnova, O.P., in Russian).
• 2001. Ultrastructure of some Permian pollen grains from the Russian Platform, in Goodman, D.K. and Clarke, R.T. (Eds.), Proceedings of the IX International Palynological Congress, Houston, Texas, USA, American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, 15 p. (with Zavialova, N.E., Gomankov, A.V.).
• 2002. Spores from the reproductive organs of Devonian plants. (with Telnova, in Russian).
• 2003. Exinal development and sporopollenin accumulation. Plant physiology, no. 3, 16 p. (with Gabaraeva N.I., Polevova, S.V., Grigor'eva, V.V., Kosenko, Ya.V., Tekleva, M.V., in Russian).
• 2003. Pollen grains of the Compositae. (Polevova, S.V., Tokarev, P.I., Bovina, I.Yu, Tekleva, M.V., and Kosenko, Ya.V., in Russian). 150 p.
• Atlas of pollen grains of herbaceous plants of Russia (light and electron microscopy). (with Severova E.E., Polevova S.V., Gapochka G.P., in Russian, unpublished). 500 p.
• Atlas of herbaceous plants of central Asia. (with Severova E.E., Polevova S.V., Bovina I.Yu., in Russian, unpublished). 500 p.