Karl Johannes Kniep was a German botanist who was a native of Jena

Jena

Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...

.

He studied medicine at the University of Kiel

University of Kiel

The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...

, and botany in Jena with Christian Ernst Stahl

Christian Ernst Stahl

Christian Ernst Stahl was a German botanist who was a native of Schiltigheim, Alsace. He studied botany at the University of Strasbourg with Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet , and at the University of Halle under Anton de Bary...

 (1848-1919), where he received his doctorate in 1904. In 1905 he became an assistant to Wilhelm Pfeffer

Wilhelm Pfeffer

Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp Pfeffer was a German botanist and plant physiologist who was born in Grebenstein.- Academic career :...

 (1845-1920) at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, and afterwards performed research on the physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 of algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

 in Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

. Starting in 1907, he was a private lecturer at the University of Freiburg

University of Freiburg

The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...

, and in 1911, became a professor at the University of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

.

In 1914 Kniep became a full professor at the University of Würzburg

University of Würzburg

The University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group.-Name:...

, where he was also deacon of the university in 1923-24. In 1924 he succeeded Gottlieb Haberlandt

Gottlieb Haberlandt

Gottlieb Haberlandt was an Austrian botanist.Haberlandt first pointed out the possibilities of the culture of isolated tissues...

 (1854-1945) as professor of plant physiology at the University of Berlin. Beginning in 1916, he was editor of the Zeitschrift für Botanik (Magazine of Botany).

Hans Kniep is remembered for his research concerning the cytology

Cell biology

Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

 and genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 of fungi, and particularly his investigations of the developmental history of Basidiomycota

Basidiomycota

Basidiomycota is one of two large phyla that, together with the Ascomycota, comprise the subkingdom Dikarya within the Kingdom Fungi...

. Between 1913 and 1917, he published five treatises involving the origin, genetics and developmental history of a unique class of fungi known as Hymenomycetes. He also did extensive studies of the physiology, chemotaxis

Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis is the phenomenon in which somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food by swimming towards the highest concentration of food molecules,...

 and photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...

of marine plants.