Johannes-Günther Knoph

Johannes-Günther Knoph (8 November 1951–29 January 2019) was a German lichenologist whose research focused on the systematics and chemotaxonomy of lichens, especially the genus Lecidella. Trained initially as a bank clerk, he later studied biology at LMU Munich and went on to hold research posts at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Jena. Through his collaboration with the chemist Christian Leuckert he became known for combining studies of secondary metabolites with classical taxonomy, producing influential treatments of Lecidella and related genera.

Life and career

Johannes-Günther Knoph was born on 8 November 1951 in the small hamlet of Breitsamet near Gerolsbach in Upper Bavaria, West Germany. He was the youngest of four children, and in 1955 his family moved to Ottobrunn, a growing suburb of Munich. After completing secondary school (Realschule) in Munich in 1969 he trained as a bank clerk with the Bayerische Vereinsbank and then worked briefly in banking. From 1973 to 1976, he was employed as a bookkeeper by the aerospace manufacturer Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in Ottobrunn. Wanting to study biology, he attended an evening grammar school for working adults in Munich, where he obtained the qualifications needed for university entrance in 1977. He then studied biology at the LMU Munich from 1977 to 1984. There he joined the working group of the lichenologist Hannes Hertel, discovered his interest in lichens, and became regarded as a specialist in lecideoid taxa, a group of crustose lichens with dark, often fruiting bodies and generally lacking a . His botany diploma thesis, completed in 1984, dealt with euthalline species of the lichen genus Porpidia in Europe, which lack a thalline margin, with particular emphasis on the Alpine region.