Johann Christian Buxbaum

Johann Christian Buxbaum (born no later than 5 October 1693, died 7 July 1730) was a German physician, botanist, entomologist and traveller. Born in Merseburg, he studied medicine at the universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena and Leiden. In 1721 Peter the Great invited him to St Petersburg as botanist at the Physical Garden of the Medical Collegium, and in 1724 he joined the Academy of Arts and Sciences and became a professor at the Academic Gymnasium. As a physician he accompanied Alexander Rumyantsev on a Russian diplomatic mission to Constantinople in 1724, and used the journey to visit Greece, Asia Minor, Baku, Derbent and Astrakhan before returning in 1727. He is commemorated in the moss genus Buxbaumia and in several species names, and his works include the Enumeratio plantarum of 1721 and five volumes of Plantarum minus cognitarum centuria.