Scientific Career
Thani took a position of scientist in the newly-founded (1960) Palynology Laboratory of the French Institute of Pondicherry (fr:Institut Français de Pondichéry) under the direction of Dr.Prof. Guinet. Within a few years Thani's scientific and administrative abilities were recognized by his promotion to the directorship of these laboratories.
During the next decade this tireless and prolific worker published numerous significant papers concerning such essentially tropical families as the Araceae, Clusiaceae, Menispermaceae, Mimosaceae and Sonnera tiaceae . In the majority of these publications, he not only gave a complete and accurate description of the pollen morphology of the species he examined, but also included the morphology of the other plant organs, in order to elucidate their probable phylogenv and to justify the classification schemes selected.
Although the bulk of Dr. Thanikaimoni's early research dealt with pollen of modern flora, in the late 1970s turned his attention to fossil pollen as well. In 1983 he convened a workshop for French and Indian palynologists in Pondicherry with the goal of clarifying the taxonomy of angiosperm pollen previously described from Tertiary horizons of tropical Africa and India. For this project Thani's collection of more than 20,000 slides of tropical palynomorphs was of inestimable value. From this cooperative endeavor, a clear synthesis of 47 taxa was obtained and published. Furthermore, he had recently been active in organizing a symposium on Tertiary pollen from tropical regions for the 7th IPC in Brisbane, Australia.
Despite Dr. Thanikaimoni's previously-mentioned important contributions to the science of palynology, he probably received his greatest international recognition and acclaim for his scholarly - volume compilation of the literature on the morphology of angiosperm pollen - Index Bibliographique sur la Morphologic des Pollens d'Angiospermes, which he initiated in 1972. His wife, Kitty, mother of their two young children, gave him invaluable assistance in the preparation of these significant publications. These volumes are indispensable bibliographic aids in the laboratories of all practicing actuopalynologists.
Dr Thanikaimoni has been referred to as "a palynologic well of erudition" - this expression fits him exactly, since he was cognizant of almost every aspect of palynology.
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