Wilibald Swibert Joseph Gottlieb von Besser

Born in Innsbruck, he lost both of his parents when he was 13, after which he was raised by his godfather, Swivert Burkhart Schivereck [de], who was a professor of botany at the University of Lwów.

Besser received his initial education at Lwów, then entered university there to study medicine while also practising botany under the guidance of Schivereck, starting a large collection of botanical specimens.

Upon the closure of the University of Lwów, von Besser accompanied Schivereck to his new teaching position in Krakow, where the latter died in 1806, leaving his godson with his herbarium.

He would publish a second work in Polish in 1828, Rżut oka na geografję fizyczną Wolynia i Podola ("A glance at the physical geography of Wolyń and Podolia").

In 1834 he was appointed professor of botany at the recently established St. Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev, where he taught in Latin due to a lack of fluency in Russian.