Birbal Sahni, FRS (1891-1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied
the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He founded what is today the
Birbal Sahni Botanical Institute in Lucknow, India. Birbal Sahni was
born on 14th November 1891 and got his early education in India at
Lahore and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1914. He later
studied under Professor A. C. Seward, and was awarded the D.Sc. degree
of London University in 1919. He returned to India and served as
Professor of Botany at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Punjab
University for about a year. In 1921, he was appointed as the first
Professor and Head of the Botany Department of the Lucknow University.
The University of Cambridge recognized his researches by the award of
the degree of Sc. D. in 1929. During the following years he not only
continued his investigations but collected around him a group of devoted
students from all parts of the country and built up a reputation for
the University which soon became the first Center for botanical and
palaeobotanical investigations in India. He established the Institute of
Palaeobotany under the aegis of The Palaeobotanical Society on 10th
September, 1946 which initially functioned in the Botany Department of
Lucknow University but later moved to its present premises at 53
University Road, Lucknow in 1949. On 3rd April, 1949 the Prime Minister
of India Jawaharlal Nehru laid down the foundation stone of the new
building of the Institute, however, a week later, on 10th April 1949,
Professor Sahni succumbed to a heart attack.
Professor Sahni was recognized by several academies and institutions in
India and abroad for his research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British
scientific honor, awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist.
His greatest contribution was the discovery of a new
group of fossil gymnosperms which he called the "Pentoxyleae". Sahni
studied fossil leaves of Ptilophyllum, stem of Bucklandia and flower
of Williamsonia and concluded that they all belong to the same plant
which he reconstructed and named as Williamsonia sewardiana. He was
elected Vice-President, Palaeobotany section, of 5th and 6th
International Botanical Congress 1930 and 1935, respectively; General
President of the Indian Science
Congress for 1940; President, National Academy of Sciences, India,
1937-1939 and 1943-1944. In 1948 he was elected a foreign Honorary
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Another high honor
came to him was his election as an Honorary President of the
International Botanical Congress, Stockholm in 1950.
