Karel Domin
Encyclopedia
After gymnasium school
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
studies in Příbram
Príbram
Příbram is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic with a population of 35,147. The city is located on the Litavka river and the foothills of Brdy, 60 kilometers south-west of Prague, the country's capital...
, he studied botany at the Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, and graduated in 1906. In 1916 he was named as professor of botany. Domin specialised in phytogeography
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
, geobotany and plant taxonomy
Plant taxonomy
Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies, identifies, and names plants. It thus is one of the main branches of taxonomy.Plant taxonomy is closely allied to plant systematics, and there is no sharp boundary between the two...
. He became member at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in 1992.-History:...
, published many scientific works and founded a botany institute at the university. The Domin scale, a commonly used means of classifying a standard area by the number of plant species found in that area, is named after him.
In the academic year 1933-34 he was rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Charles University and was one of the participants of a struggle for ancient academic insignia between the Czech and German universities of Prague (the insigniáda) that resulted in street-fights and looting. From 1935 to 1939 he was a member of parliament; after the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
, he co-founded a traditionalist political movement (Akce národní obrody).
He is considered the man who is the most responsible the creation of Tatra National Park
Tatra National Park
Tatra National Park is a National Park located in the Tatra mountains in the Małopolska Region in southern Poland, bordering Slovakia. It was created in 1954 on an area of 215.56 km², but it is currently slightly smaller, at . Of this, 151.91 km² is forest and the remainder mainly meadows...
.