John McNeill (botanist)

John McNeill (born 15 September 1933[1]) is a British and Canadian botanist and museum director who has worked particularly on the plant order Caryophyllales. In 1960, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh for his thesis on “Taxonomic studies in the Alsinoideae”.[2] As a nomenclature specialist, he has provided editorial guidance for journals and book series, and has served as a member of the Editorial Committee of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants since the XIII International Botanical Congress in 1981. He has served as Vice-rapporteur and Rapporteur-general for several botanical congresses, including at Melbourne (2011). As an editor for the journal Taxon, he is involved with assessing proposals to conserve and reject botanical names.[3]

John McNeill
McNeill in 2006
Born15 September 1933 (1933-09-15) (age 90)

Career summary edit

Since his retirement in 1999, Dr McNeill has served as Director Emeritus of the Royal Ontario Museum.[4] Since 1998 he has been an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He is involved in the Flora of North America, acting as an editor, writer, and as a consultant on matters of botanical nomenclature related to the project. He was President of the International Organization for Plant Information. For the Flora of China he contributed to the descriptions of the families Caryophyllaceae and Polygonaceae.

McNeill was the (co-) author of more than sixty botanical names. He is a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and he serves on the editorial board of Edinburgh Journal of Botany.

References edit

  1. ^ ‘McNEILL, Prof. John’, Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 28 May 2013
  2. ^ McNeill, John (1960). "Taxonomic studies in the Alsinoideae". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Nicholas Turland (2012). "An introduction to John McNeill's career (abstract from Botany 2012 conference, Columbus, Ohio, July 7–11)".
  4. ^ "Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada". The Bean Bag. 45. 1997. Archived from the original on 15 July 2006.