Raven, Peter Hamilton (1936 - )

Born in Shanghai, China, 13 June 1936 to American parents;

Japanese aggression in China led the Raven family to return to San Francisco, USA, in the late 1930s.

After teaching at Stanford University, Raven went on to become Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1971. In 2006, his position was renamed President and Director. Raven announced his plans to retire in 2011, to coincide with his 75th birthday and his 40th year at the Garden. Peter Wyse Jackson was appointed as Raven's successor at the Missouri Botanical Garden in September 2010.

Raven is possibly best known for his important work Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution published in the journal Evolution in 1964 which he coauthored with Paul R. Ehrlich. Since then he has authored numerous scientific and popular papers, many on the evening primrose family, Onagraceae. Raven is also an author of the widely used textbook Biology of Plants, now in its seventh edition, coauthored with Ray F. Evert and Susan E. Eichhorn (both of University of Wisconsin, Madison).

He is a frequent speaker on the need for biodiversity and species conservation.

The American Society of Plant Taxonomists established in 2000 the Peter Raven Award in his honor to be conferred to authors with outstanding contributions to plant taxonomy and "for exceptional efforts at outreach to non-scientists".

He serves on the advisory council of CRDF Global. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1993-1996.

Australasian collections

He undertook a major collecting trip to New Zealand in December 1969 and Australia in 1970 with a strong focus on family Onagraceae, especially genus Epilobium.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_H._Raven
Portrait Photo: Extracted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_H._Raven

Australasian herbarium specimen collecting localities for 'Raven, P.H.' from AVH (26/5/2017)

833 records