Georg Joseph Kamel

Georg Joseph Kamel (born 21 April 1661, Brno, Moravia, now Czech Republic - died 2 May 1706, Manila, Philippines), also known as Camellus, was a Jesuit missionary and botanist to the Philippines. The genus Camellia was named in his honour by Carolus Linnaeus. He was originally from Moravia and wrote Herbarium aliarumque stirpium in insula Luzone Philippinarum (Herbs and Medicinal Plants in the island of Luzon, Philippines). Parts of this work on oriental plants were published as an appendix in the work of a leading British botanist, John Ray, in the Historia plantarum; species hactenus editas insuper multas noviter inventas & descriptas complectens in 1704, and in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

He was sent first to the Marianas in 1683 then he transferred to the Philippines in 1688. Kamel established a pharmacy in Manila the first in the Philippines, where poor people were supplied with remedies for free.

UNESCO named the 300th anniversary of his death in 2006 the single most important world anniversaries of all time.