Whalley, Ralph Derwyn Broughton (Wal)   (1933 - )

Born 9 July 1933, at Macksville, north-coast NSW, Australia;

Tertiary education:
University of Sydney: Sydney, NSW, 1951 to 1955, BSc (Agr)
University of California Riverside, CA, USA, 1962 to 1965, PhD (Agronomy)

Dr Ralph Derwyn (Wal) Whalley of the University of New England, previously Associate Professor of Botany, now Honorary Research Fellow in Botany, was awarded an AM (Member in the General Division of Order of Australia) in the Australia Day Honours list for 2007 for services to conservation and the environment, particularly through research into Australian native grasses and the promotion of their use for pasture, lawn and revegetation of degraded natural landscapes.

In the course of his academic career Wal has been a long-standing champion of the conservation and sustainable management of native grasslands, promoting the cause of native species long before it became fashionable. He is a co-author of the book Grasses of New South Wales, first published in 1982 and now in its fourth edition.

The genus Walwhalleya (Poaceae, Paniceae) was named in his honour in 2006 by botanical authors Jeremy Bruhl, Peter Wilson and Karen Wills.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2949-9891

Source: https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/ers/rwhalley
https://austrangesoc.com.au/wal-whalley-steps-down/
Portrait Photo: 2019, Kirsti Abbott, in https://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/6321818/une-ecologists-discuss-scientific-legacies-at-science-in-club-this-week/

Collecting localities for 'Whalley, R.D.B.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 230 specimens