Rolf Santesson

Rolf Santesson (1916–2013) was a Swedish lichenologist and university lecturer. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. In 1952, Santesson became a Ph.D., defending a doctoral dissertation on foliicolous lichens.

From 1973 to 1981, Santesson was professor and director of the Botanical Department at Stockholm's Swedish Museum of Natural History. After his retirement in 1982, Santesson continued working at the Botanical Museum in Uppsala, where he researched lichen parasites as well as helped compile several editions of the book series Lichens of Sweden and Norway. Santesson undertook major lichen-collecting expeditions throughout the world, including Europe (British Isles, France, Madeira, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain); North America (United States; Mexico) Tenerife; Iceland; Africa (Kenya and Tanzania); South America (Patagonia; Peru); and Asia (China; Far East of Russia). Between 1984 and 2008 he distributed the exsiccata series Fungi lichenicoli exsiccati.

Recognition Santesson has been recognized for his intuitive approach in assessing phylogenetic relationships amongst lichens. As Robert Lücking has noted, "he was the first to predict that species with different ascospores but otherwise similar characters, so-called sporomorphs, form closely related series." Although this concept had been largely neglected by other taxonomists, his theory was validated decades later with the use of molecular phylogenetics in the genus Thelotrema.

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