Powell, Jocelyn Marie   (1939 - )

After graduating from the University of Auckland in 1961, she was employed by the D.S.I.R. Crop Research Division to carry out plant breeding trials and cytology.

She gained her M.Sc. in 1963 for cytotaxonomic work on the liliaceous genera Astelia and Collospermum while working at the D.S.I.R., also on the cytology and breeding systems of the tropical crops sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and taro (Colocasia esculenta).

Interest in the tropics lead Jocelyn to the ANU to do a PhD in palynology.

Field work in the highlands of Papua New Guinea required the rapid mastery of new skills: Melanesian Pidgin, negotiating a Landrover over virtually non-existent roads, training local field assistants to operate coring equipment from unstable rafts on remote lakes, living in grass huts, and dodging the occasional arrow.

This research into the vegetation and agricultural history of various parts of the highlands continued in collaboration with archaeologists and geomorphologists until 1975, with attachments to ANU's New Guinea Research Unit and the University of Papua New Guinea.

In J975, Jocelyn returned to civilisation, and to taxonomic work at the Sydney Herbariun. Her research there has focussed on the Epacridaceae, and included revisionary work on Leucopogon, and pollen morphological and phylogenetic studies of the family as a whole.

She went on to become 'Senior Research Scientist at the National Herbarium of NSW'

In her spare time, she helped run a conservation society, writes and edits books on the Hawkesbury River, and pulls in the odd fish or two.

Source: Extracted from:
Austral. Syst. Bot. Soc. Newsletter 66 (March 1991) p.21
Portrait Photo: 1978, George Chippendale.

Collecting localities for 'Powell, J.M.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 10,033 specimens