After graduating from the University of Erlangen in 1786, he worked there between 1787 and 1792 as a professor of botany. Between 1792 and 1803 he was Head of the Botany Department and Director of the Botanical Garden of Göttingen University. Already a famous botanist, in particular for his work on lichens, he settled in Moscow in January 1804 and directed the Department of Botany at University of Moscow,[1] as well as the Botanical garden.
Works
Descriptio et adumbratio plantarum e classe cryptogámica Linnaei qua lichenes dicuntur... (1789-1801)
Vegetabilia cryptogama. (1790, Erlangen)
Nomenclator Fungorum. (1789-1790, two volumes, Berlin)
Historia salicum, iconibus illustrata. (1785-1787, Leipzig)