"In addition to being a prolific writer, editor, and lecturer for the scientific community, Barney Lipscomb has created imaginative approaches to convey the importance of taxonomy to non-scientists."
Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) August 5, 2010
Botanist Barney L. Lipscomb, the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth and head of BRIT's scientific press, has received the 2010 Peter H. Raven Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. He was presented the award at the Society's annual meeting on Tuesday, August 3, 2010, in Providence, R.I.
The award, named for Peter H. Raven, the prominent botanist, environmentalist, and longtime director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, is presented to individuals who have made exceptional efforts at outreach to non-scientists.
"Barney Lipscomb is a consummate communicator," said S. H. Sohmer, Ph.D., FLS, BRIT's president and director. "In addition to being a prolific writer, editor, and lecturer for the scientific community, he has created imaginative approaches to convey the importance of taxonomy to non-scientists."
With a career spanning 35 years, Lipscomb has become known as a botanical ambassador. He is "Barney the Botanist" to area grade school and high school students, and he is well known for his multimedia presentation, "Murderous Plants: Poisonous Herbs," to civic organizations, arts groups, and businesses. Since the inception of BRIT in 1987, he has given 573 talks and 234 tours to master gardeners, garden clubs, horticultural groups, native plant societies, and special-interest plant groups, e.g., orchid, cactus, fern and begonia societies, reaching approximately 52,000 people.
Through his editorship and research, Lipscomb is one of the best-known botanists in Texas. He co-authored "Shinners & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas" (Botanical Research Institute of Texas and Austin College, 1999), a 1640-page, fully illustrated, comprehensive guide to a large portion of the diverse plant life of Texas, and Vol. 1 of the three-volume "Illustrated Flora of East Texas." Both books serve as textbooks for students of botany and plant taxonomy. He is author of more than 30 scientific publications.
His long-standing association with poison centers led to his work in forensic botany. His co-authored article, "The Use of Animal-Dispersed Seeds and Fruits in Forensic Botany," chronicles his success in having provided botanical evidence and testimony that was crucial in convicting the kidnapper and molester of a two-year-old child in Fort Worth.
About the American Society of Plant Taxonomists
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists promotes research and teaching of taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of vascular and nonvascular plants. Organized in 1935, the Society has a membership of over 1300. It publishes "Systematic Botany" and "Systematic Botany Monographs," supports funds for a variety of honorary and charitable activities, and conducts scientific meetings each summer.
About the Botanical Research Institute of Texas
The Botanical Research Institute of Texas is a nonprofit, international, plant information and interpretation center based in Fort Worth whose mission is to conserve our botanical heritage. BRIT catalogs plant life on Earth and has conducted extensive research in Texas and in tropical rainforests in the Philippines, Costa Rica, and currently in Peru and Papua New Guinea. BRIT's herbarium, a collection of more than one million dried plant specimens representing much of Earth’s plant diversity, is among the largest in the United States and is the largest herbarium not part of a university, botanical garden, or natural history museum. BRIT's library houses more than 100,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and journals from more than 100 countries.
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