Christen Friis Rottbøll was a Danish physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and botanist

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 and pupil of Carolus Linnaeus

Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

.

He studied at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

, first theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, then medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, in which in took his doctorate degree in 1755 (De morbis deuteropathicis seu Sympathier). He then travelled abroad 1757-1761 to further his studies of medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, and to study chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 and botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 - the latter subject at Uppsala University

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

 with Linnaeus. From 1761, he was executive at the Botanic Garden

University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden

The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden , usually referred to simply as Copenhagen Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark...

 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, and succeeded Georg Christian Oeder

Georg Christian Oeder

Georg Christian Edler von Oldenburg Oeder was a German-Danish botanist, medical doctor, economist and social reformer. His name is particularly associated with the initiation of the plate work Flora Danica.-Life and work:Oeder was the son of a Bavarian parish minister, Georg Ludwig Oeder...

 as its director i 1770. He was appointed professor at the Chair of Medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 in 1776 and received the title of "royal adviser" (konferensråd) in 1784.

As a medical doctor, he studied smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 and reformed the vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

 programme that had run in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 since 1755. He abolished pre and post treatment and instead advised systematic weakening of the inoculum before application.

As a botanist, Rottbøll gave out the first comprehensive list of the Flora of Greenland, he published descriptions of plants from the Danish colonies in India collected by Johann Gerhard König

Johann Gerhard König

Johann Gerhard König was a Baltic German botanist and physician.He was born near Kreutzburg in Polish Livonia, which is now Krustpils in Latvia. He was a private pupil of Carolus Linnaeus in 1757, and lived in Denmark from 1759 to 1767. From 1773 to 1785, he worked as a naturalist for the Nawab of...

, and similarly of plants from Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

 collected by Daniel Rolander

Daniel Rolander

Daniel Rolander was a Swedish biologist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.Rolander was born in Hälleberga, Småland, Sweden and studied at Uppsala University where he came under the influence of Linnaeus. In 1755, Rolander went to Surinam to study and collect plants, which he sent back to Sweden...

.

Rottbøll named the plant genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Rolandra

Rolandra

Rolandra is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

(Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

) after Rolander

Daniel Rolander

Daniel Rolander was a Swedish biologist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.Rolander was born in Hälleberga, Småland, Sweden and studied at Uppsala University where he came under the influence of Linnaeus. In 1755, Rolander went to Surinam to study and collect plants, which he sent back to Sweden...

 and the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Kyllinga

Kyllinga

Kyllinga is genus of flowering plants in the sedge family known commonly as spikesedges. They are native to tropical and warm temperate areas of the world, especially tropical Africa. These sedges vary in morphology, growing to heights from 2 centimeters to a meter and sometimes lacking rhizomes...

(Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

) after Peder Kylling

Peder Lauridsen Kylling

Peder Lauridsen Kylling was a 17th century Danish botanist. He was born in Assens and began studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1660. He graduated in theology in 1666 and was called as parish minister. However, for reasons now unknown, the call was withdrawn shortly afterward...

. Carolus Linnaeus the Younger

Carolus Linnaeus the Younger

Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Carl von Linné or Carolus Linnaeus the Younger was a Swedish naturalist...

 named the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Rottboellia

Rottboellia

Rottboellia is a genus of grass in the Poaceae family.It was named in honour of Christen Friis Rottbøll by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger.-External links:*...

(Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

) after him.