‘Damavand 2018’ the Anniversary Ceremony of the First Botanist and Mountaineer Ascending to Damavand Summit

This symposium was held at Niavaran Historical and Cultural Center, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Austrian botanist and climber, Theodor Kochi’s ascent to Damavand Summit. A technical meeting on the botany of Mount Damavand was also on the sidelines.

The Damavand 2018 Symposium was held with the collaboration of the Cultural Forum of Austrian Embassy in Tehran, Iran Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation as well as Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran. This symposium was held at Niavaran Historical and Cultural Center, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Austrian botanist and climber, Theodor Kochi’s ascent to Damavand Summit. A technical meeting on the botany of Mount Damavand was also on the sidelines.

This technical meeting was attended by Alexander Rigger, vice-president of the Austrian ambassador and the manager of Austrian Embassy’s Cultural Forum in Tehran; Birgit Geschirr, a cultural official of the Embassy and her deputy;  Ernest Witek, head of Department of Botany of Natural History Museum in Vienna;  Professor Alireza Ghassempour and Dr. Farzad Najafi from Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University as well as Dr. Valliollah Mozafarian, a botanist from the  Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands.

In this meeting, Witek gave a speech on the life and botanical research of Theodor Kochi, the first botanist who climbed to the peak of Mount Damavand in 1843, and how he collected plants and herbarium,  as well as a brief history of the botanical relations between Iran and Austria.

Following that, Dr. Valliollah Mozafarian presented the audience with the information on the ecological system and the botany of Mount Damavand, the history of the mountain’s summit as well as the number of climbers who have ascended to the summit.

A Lecture on phytochemistry of the biological activities on the Alborz mountain range and the medicinal plants of the region was given by professor Alireza Ghasempour and Dr. Farzad Najafi from Medicinal Plants and Drugs Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University, as a closing to the day’s meeting.