Heinrichs Skuja

Heinrichs Leonhards Skuja^[1][2][3] (Latvian: Heinrihs Skuja; 8 September 1892 – 19 July 1972) was a Latvian phycologist active in the 20th century. He is considered one of the world's most outstanding phycologists and protistologists of his time.

Skuja was actively involved in the study of Latvian algae since 1924, and continued researching algal systematics and ecology in Uppsala, Sweden, after 1944. He received several academic awards from both countries for his contributions to phycology. Due to his extensive knowledge on algae, he received samples from scientific expeditions around the world to be identified by him. He described thousands of new taxa and published over 70 papers and monographs that were accompanied by his own scientific illustrations. In his private life, he invested time in art and music, and was well-regarded by his friends and colleagues.

Heinrichs Leonhards Skuja was born on 8 September 1892 in Majori, Jūrmala, near Riga in Latvia,^[1][2] into a family of carpenters.^[4] During his youth, he lived close to the coast and developed an early interest in travel and nature, particularly aquatic plants and animals.^[2][4] His first schooling was at a charity school. After graduating, he spent a year traveling by sailboat across the seas, including long trips in the West Indies and along the North American coast, reaching as far as Mexico.^[4] These travels intensified his interest for aquatic life.^[2] He returned to Latvia in 1910, where he attended evening classes at a secondary school in Riga. He finished school in 1912^[1] and went on a long trip by foot, traveling through parts of Sweden, Holland and Germany.^[4]

When the First World War began, his family moved to Baku, in the Caucasus region, where he worked as a draftsman^[4] and was engaged in floristic studies on the Apsheron Peninsula.^[2] He returned to Latvia in 1920 and was drafted into the army, where he worked as a draftsman in the technical department of the Army Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters until 1922, when he was demobilized.^[4]

In 1922, Skuja was appointed a lecturer in biology at the People's High School in Riga.^[1] Simultaneously, he began his academic studies at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Latvia (LU),^[1][4] primarily interested in taxonomic and phylogenetic problems, and he soon chose algae as his favorite research topic.^[2] In a competition for student research papers, Skuja won first prize for his paper Mērsraga–Ragaciema piekrastes aļģu flora (English: Algal flora of the Mērsrags–Ragaciems Coast) and, by decision of the LU Dean Council, was enrolled as a student in the Department of Natural Sciences. During his studies in the department, he performed the duties of a teaching assistant and continued researching Latvian freshwater algae.^[4] After some minor papers, Skuja published his first major study, Beitrag zur Algenftora des Rigaschen Meerbusens (English: Contribution to the algal flora of the Gulf of Riga), in 1924.^[2] He graduated in 1929 and was conferred his mag. rer. nat. degree.^[2] For his phycological research, he received the Culture Fund Award the same year, and the K. Barons Award in 1931.^[4]

After graduation, Skuja worked as a senior lecturer. From 1929 until 1932 he taught at the Institute of Plant Systematics in Riga. Between 1933 and 1939, as a private lecturer, he taught cryptogamy and protistology,^[1] as well as a course on symbiosis in protists. From 1940 onwards, in Nazi-occupied Latvia, he taught a botany course to pharmacology and veterinary students.^[2] On 4 October 1943, Skuja defended his doctoral thesis Pētījumi par Ķīnas, sevišķi tās dienvidrietumu daļas, aļģu floru un veģetāciju (English: Studies on the algal flora and vegetation of China, especially its southwestern part) and obtained the degree of dr. rer. nat..^[4]

Before the end of the Second World War and the Soviet liberation of Latvia, Skuja crossed to the coast of Sweden in a small boat one night in autumn of 1944. He brought his microscope, some manuscripts, algae samples, and books. He was soon able to focus entirely on phycological research,^[2] and worked in connection with the Botanical Institute at Uppsala University,^[4] where he obtained a position as a research professor (or laborator) in botany from 1947 until his retirement in 1961.^[1] In 1958 he received the degree of doctor honoris causa, and in 1961 he was awarded the Björkén Prize for his outstanding achievements in freshwater phycology.^[5] In Latvia, Skuja's student Antonija Kumsāre, and later Maija Balode, Ivars Druvietis and others, continued the phycological research.^[4]

During his years in Uppsala, Skuja remained engaged in intensive research on freshwater algae, resulting in comprehensive papers illustrated with his own drawings. He published not only taxonomic and floristic records, but also discussion on phylogenetic relationships and the ecology of freshwater algae. By the early 1970s, he had already produced more than 70 papers, and he disseminated his extensive algal knowledge through annual general and specialized courses, which attracted large numbers of students.^[2] He still divided his time between laboratory work and field observations, and devoted one work shift each day to the Institute of Systematic Botany at Uppsala.^[4] In 1958, he took the initiative to found the Algological Society of Uppsala.^[5][1]

Even in Sweden, Skuja always felt close to his home country and to the University of Latvia. In 1961, while congratulating a Swedish student fraternity, he spoke about a distant calling of unceasing and constant spiritual growth, whic he referred to as "the future of our entire nation, our native land, our Latvia, through which and only through which we can walk our path to a true, enlightened life, to understanding humanity."^[4]

In 1970, Skuja suffered a stroke from which he did not recover.^[1] He died on 19 July, 1972.^[5][4]

Skuja had many friends in private life. He was particularly valued by fellow Latvians living in Sweden. He was both a scientist and a creative artist in his spare time. He was deeply interested in art, music, literature, and archaeology, and rarely missed opportunities to attend musical events.^[2][4] His gentleness, benevolence, and helpfulness were remembered in memorial publications.^[5][1]

In academic life, he maintained a wide correspondence with phycologists from different countries, who often visited him and sent him collected samples for identification, including samples from many scientific expeditions around the world. Skuja's student Antonija Kumsāre remembered him as "a very accurate, friendly, responsive person who stood out with his great love of work and sense of responsibility."^[2][4] He was always willing to discuss phycological issues and to devote much of his time to studying the collections made by his colleagues, even when that supposed an interruption of his own studies.^[1]

Heinrichs Skuja was married to Vera Skuja (née Vera Kaminska), who was a board member and master of economics at the Uppsala University, and a long-standing manager of the Uppsala Latvian Library.^[6]

Heinrichs Skuja published extensive works on algae around the world, accompanied by his own illustrations.^[4] During his work in Latvia (1924–1944), he thoroughly researched the algal biodiversity and increased the number of known species from 200 to 2300, naming 50 new species in the process.^[3] Some examples are Kylinella latvica, dedicated to the Swedish phycologist H. Kilin; Ilsteria quadrijuncta, in honor of the first Latvian botanist Jānis Ilsters; and Chlamydomonas rigensis, dedicated to Riga. In 1937, among materials sent to Skuja from the Chinese expedition of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, he described more than 700 algae taxa, and published 36 new species. He also processed algal samples collected during the expeditions to Greece and Anatolia by C. Rēģelis, describing more than 300 species the same year. In 1936 he received materials collected in Burma, which he published in 1949 after the war, also describing taxa new to science.^[4]

Later, while established in Sweden, Skuja identified the local algal taxa, as well as bryophytes and aquatic plants.^[7] He published monographs on the phytoplankton taxonomy and biology of the lakes around Uppsala in 1948, on the lakes of central Sweden in 1956, and on the algae and vegetation of the lakes of the Åland region in 1964, describing a total of 29 new genera and 450 new species and varieties. His last work on the algae of New Zealand marshes was published in 1976 after his death, and described 389 species.^[4]

The main focus of his monographs were the Rhodophyta,^[1] particularly the genus Batrachospermum.^[4] He also described several new taxa of protozoa, such as the katablepharids,^[8] and made important observations on protists from oxygen-lacking environments.^[9]

Skuja is regarded as one of the most influential and talented phycologists and protistologists of the 20th century.^[9] Many contemporary authors wrote extensively about his importance in the development of phycology, and several algal genera and species have been named in his honor, such as Skujapelta, Skujaella, Skujaster,^[10] Chlamydomonas skujae, Spirogyra skujae, Batrachospermum skujae, Diceras skujae, and Cosmarium skujae. Maksimilian Holerbah, a taxonomist at the Leningrad Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, highly regarded him as one of the world's most outstanding phycologists, and expressed doubts as to whether Skuja would have had the same academic opportunities in the Soviet Union as he did in Sweden.^[4]

The museum of the University of Latvia houses an algae herbarium collection with samples and illustrations created by Skuja.^[4]

• Skuja, H. (1926/28): Vorabeiten zu einer Algenflora von Lettland I–IV. – Acta Horti Botanici Universitatis Latviensis 1–3, Riga. Nachdruck: (Koeltz) Königstein.
• Skuja, H. (1932). Beitrag zur Algenflora Lettlands I. Acta Horti Bot Univ Latviensis 7: 25–85, [1].
• Skuja, H. (1938). Die phylogenetischen Entwicklungsrichtungen bei den Protisten. Acta Biol. Latvica, 8:1-26, [2].
• Skuja, H. (1939). Beitrag zur Algenflora Lettlands II. Acta Horti Bot Univ Latviensis 11/12: 41–169, [3].
• Skuja, H. (1948): Taxonomie des Phytoplanktons einiger Seen in Uppland, Schweden. 39 Taf. – Symbolae Botanicae Upsalienses. 9, 3: 1–399, Uppsala. Nachdruck: (Koeltz) Königstein, [4].
• Skuja, H. (1956): Taxonomische und biologische Studien über das Phytoplankton schwedischer Binnengewässer. 63 Taf. – Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis Ser. 4, 16, 3: 1–404, Uppsala. Nachdruck: (Koeltz) Königstein, [5].
• Skuja, H. (1964): Grundzüge der Algenflora und Algenvegetation der Fjeldgegenden um Abisko in Schwedisch-Lappland. 69 Taf. – Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis Ser. 4, 18, 3: 1–465, Uppsala. Nachdruck: (Koeltz) Königstein, [6].

• Data related to Heinrichs Skuja at Wikispecies