Pieter Baas

Pieter Baas (28 April 1944 – 29 April 2024) was a Dutch botanist and emeritus professor of plant systematics at the Leiden University, who was a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science.

He served as director of the of Leiden University between 1991 and 1999. When the institute was faced with budget cuts in 1993 he managed to preserve the collection by joining it with the university collections of Wageningen and Utrecht. This led to the founding of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands in 1999. Baas subsequently became director of the institute and served until 2005.

As a botanist, Baas specialised in wood anatomy, and was a honorary fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science. Most of his pioneering research work in wood anatomy has been jointly made with the American botanist and wood scientist, Elisabeth Wheeler. Provided by Wikipedia