On December 25, Alfreds Ripa, a Latvian emeritus scientist, Knight of the Order of the Three Stars, Doctor of Biology, passed away at the age of 85. Zane Rašmane, Head of the Education and Information Department of the National Botanical Garden, informed LETA.
Ripa was born in 1936 in the village of Dzedru, Talsi district. After graduating from Bulduri Horticultural Technical School in 1956, he studied at the Michurin Fruit and Vegetable Institute in Leningrad. After graduating from the institute in 1961, the young specialist started working at the Ogre Horticultural Experimental Station, but already in 1962 entered the postgraduate program of the Institute of Biology of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, and after graduating he continued to work at the Institute of Biology in Salaspils as a young researcher. The study and research work culminated in the candidate’s dissertation “Characterization of Amino Acids and Proteins in the Vegetative Parts of Some Legumes”, which was successfully defended in 1967.
This was followed by the most productive stage of the energetic young scientist – in 1958 he started working in the newly established Academy of Sciences (later – National) Botanical Garden, where he also works for the next 60 years. the head of the laboratory. The laboratory became a sector, later a Department of Food, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, but often both inside and outside the garden, it was simply called the Department of Ripa.
Under the leadership of Ripa, a collection of medicinal, technical, fodder plants and a particularly large berry crop has been created: new crops for Latvia have been tried – large cranberries, tall blueberries, lingonberries, blue honeysuckle, sea buckthorn, actinidia, partridge. The chapter develops their cultivation methods, evaluates the varieties that have been propagated and introduced into production, as well as new forms of large cranberries, tall blueberries, lingonberries, sea buckthorns and honeysuckles that are more suitable for local conditions.
Ripa is the author of 13 books, 80 scientific and almost 300 popular scientific articles. He has participated in many councils and commissions – wild berry, non-timber forest resources, berry crop selection and variety evaluation, as well as was a long-term member of the Scientific Council of the Botanical Garden.
The scientist has created eight large varieties of cranberries and two varieties of honeysuckle. Many of them have gained recognition not only in Latvia, but also abroad – in Poland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Ripa was awarded the Letter of Recognition by the Prime Minister and the Order of the Three Stars for the introduction, introduction into production and selection of new berry crops in Latvia.
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