Chair of Botany and Mycology

The Chair of Botany and Mycology was founded in 1923. Professor H. L. Bedelyan was the first head of the chair. In different years, the department was headed by famous scientists, including Professor N. A. Troitsky, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and Armenian SSR A. L. Takhtajyan, correspondent member of RA NAS D. N. Teterevnikova-Babayan, Associate Professor T. G. Tsaturyan, Professor A. P. Melikyan, and RA NAS Academician L. L. Osipyan.

World-famous botanist and Academician A. L. Takhtajian created a new classification system for higher plants, reflecting evolution and phylogeny. His work on identifying the problems of the emergence of flowering plants and dividing the floristic regions of the earth brought him world recognition. A. P. Melikyan, having studied the anatomical structure of plant seeds, was the first to show that it can be used in taxonomy and phylogeny of taxonomic groups. D. N. Teterevnikova-Babayan founded the Chair of phytopathology at the Agricultural Institute, and then at YSU, the Chair of lower plants. Academician L. L. Osipyan laid the foundation of experimental mycology in Armenia.

Multi-faceted and large-scale studies of flora and fungi were carried out in the Chair, including plant and phylogeny, evolutionary and geographical, paleobotanical, palynological, geobotanical, and other directions, as well as an inventory of plants and fungi of different regions of RA were carried out, including taxonomic and ecological groups. Research has been done on the mycological safety of food and drugs.

At the Chair of Botany and Mycology, works are now being conducted in the direction of vegetation, higher plants, medicinal plants and plant resources, medical mycology, biotechnology of fungi, algae, and phytopathology. More than 30,000 specimens registered in the International Cadaster of Herbariums (Index Herbariorum) are kept in the educational and scientific herbariums of the Chair (ERHM and ERCB). The chair is the only scientific and educational center of mycological research in the Republic.

High-quality specialists, who teach at the Chair, usually undergo regular training and are involved in many international and local grant programs. The chair's employees are the authors of many monographs, educational manuals, encyclopedias, the Red Book of Armenia, school textbooks, and scientific articles, most of which are published in international periodicals with a high impact factor.

The Department of Botany and Mycology implements the "Medical Mycology and Applied Botany Master" educational program.