Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky

Vladimir was born on 11 March 1863 in the village of Samostrely (now Korets Raion of Rivne Oblast). His father, grandfather and great grandfather were clergymen.

The Lipsky family moved to Zhitomir in 1873. Vladimir studied at the Volhynian Gymnasium; he graduated from Pavlo Galagan Collegium (magna cum laude) in 1881, and Kyiv University in 1887. The formation of Vladimir Lipsky as a scientist was considerably influenced by Johannes Schmalhausen, who headed the chair of plant taxonomy and morphology.

From 1887 to 1894 Vladimir Lipsky worked with the Botanical Garden of Kyiv University first as conservator, then as assistant at the chair of botanics.

He took part in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus and Northern Iran from 1889.

Between 1894 and 1917, Lipsky worked with the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden as junior and senior conservator of the herbarium, chief botanist, and eventually head of the Living Plants Department.

Lipsky participated in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus, Altai and Central Asia conducting detailed studies of the Alpine flora of the regions.

In 1917 he returned to Ukraine and actively participated in the creation of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, holding the botany chair of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was the president of the academy from 1922 to 1928. Between 1928 and 1933 he was the director of the Botanical Gardens of the Odessa University in Odessa.

Lipsky conducted extensive botanical expeditions and travelled to nearly all continents except Australia and Antarctica.