Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria |
Born at Bridgetown, W.A., on 3 May 1946.
After graduation from the
University of Western Australia he joined the staff of the WA State
Herbarium as a botanist.
He then served for a short time in Vietnam under Australia's military National Service program.
He then went on to become Australia's authority on the genus Acacia and in the 2000s set out much of his knowledge in the website he maintained "World Wide Wattle". He has collected over a large part of WA with his main interest being the genus Acacia; his papers on acacias are in Nuytsia,
commencing from vol. 1 no. 1.
In the latter part of his working life, and in retirement, he resumed his interest in Vietnam and spent extensive time there.
He was appointed Australian
Botanical Liaison Officer at Kew for the year 1976/77.
Source: Extracted from: Hall, N. (1978) Botanists of the eucalypts. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne;
His long and productive career of more than 40
years has involved research on the taxonomy,
nomenclature, phylogeny, biogeography,
utilisation, phytochemisty, conservation biology,
anatomy and botanical history of the iconic
genus Acacia.
He has described c. 350 new taxa, as well
as revising and recircumscribing many others -
work that has involved painstakingly confirming
or correcting
the identity of a
vast number of
herbarium coll-
ections (>29,400
specimens at the
Western Australian
Herbarium alone).
He has published
more than 180
items, including
more than 80
refereed papers
and the Flora of
Australia account
of the genus.
He
has also made a
substantial con-
tribution to efforts to unravel the phylogenetic
structure of the genus, work that resulted in
the recognition that Acacia, as traditionally
circumscribed, consists of five separate
monophyletic groups, the largest of which is
Australian. He was deeply involved in the process
and negotiations which led to the name Acacia
being conserved with an Australian type.
As well as this crucial work in providing
foundation knowledge of this important genus,
Bruce has been innovative and groundbreaking
in making his knowledge available to a broader
public through the World Wide Wattle website
(www.worldwidewattle.com), which he established
and manages, and his superb interactive
identification guides WATTLE - Acacias of
Australia (2001) and Wattles of the Pilbara
(2010).
His interests and contributions in Acacia have
been wide-ranging, from alpha taxonomy and
systematics to conservation, nomenclature and
cultural and industrial uses of Acacia species in
plantation forestry, reforestation and for firewood,
food and chemical production. In this regard,
Bruce has been exemplary in the extension of
taxonomic research into the government, public
and corporate realms.
Source: Nomination for Burbidge Medal:
Bruce Maslin AM retires
Congratulations to Bruce Maslin who in the
January 2017 Australia Day Honours List was
made a member of the Order of Australia for
"significant service to botany, particularly in
Western Australia, as a research scientist, and
as an author".
This came a month after his retirement was
marked at the WA Herbarium in December.
After 48 years (1967 - 2015) the habit is too
much and Bruce continues on as an Honorary
Research Associate at the herbarium whilst
continuing to spend much of his time in south-
east Asia working on Acacia sens. lat.
Source: Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 170 (March 2017)
Data from 14,517 specimens