Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson
Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson, also Lawrie Johnson ( born June 26, 1925 in Cheltenham, New South Wales; † August 1, 1997 in Sydney ) was an Australian botanist. His botanical author abbreviation is " LASJohnson ".
Early years
Lawrie Johnson, was born the third child of Algernon Sidney Johnson accountant and his wife, Emily Margaret Johnson (born Manson ). He attended schools in Sydney and Parramatta and was interested in early for the natural sciences, first of Chemistry.
In 1941, he began a study of botany at the University of Sydney, during which he was involved in the taxonomic revision of the Kasuarinengewächse. In 1948 he completed his studies.
Professional life
Immediately after his graduation Johnson entered the service of the National Herbarium of New South Wales, a department of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, a. He was preoccupied with the classification of the local plant collection, began with an assortment of flora of New South Wales and made himself as a name as a systematic botanist.
In 1962 he was seconded for a year as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. He was appointed first deputy chief botanist and 1972 as director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney in 1968. A post he held until his retirement in 1985.
Johnson led together with Kenneth D. Hill and Don Blaxell by a reorganization of the eucalypts, the one he ran in the genera Eucalyptus (almost 800 species ), Corymbia (about 113 species) and Angophora (about 15 species). He examined the order of Myrtenartigen and the myrtle family, in particular with regard to their inflorescences and their DNA. After his retirement, he continued his work in creating a Flora of New South Wales from 1990 to 1993.
Overall, Johnson described together with his colleagues, four new families of vascular plants, 33 new genera and 286 new species (including the published after his death ). He ordered 395 new species a.
Home life
On November 18, 1950 married Margaret Lawrie Johnson Merle Hodge Asta, a fellow student, whom he met in the first semester of his studies, but did not continue their studies. They had five children together, Christopher, Sylvia, Nicholas, Quentin and Alexander, of which, however, none of the father succeeded in the profession.
Later years and death
Johnson advised after his retirement, the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust and worked for the Council of the Linnean Society of New South Wales and several other botanical organizations such as the International Association for Plant Taxonomy.
His last trip, he led in January 1997 to a meeting of the Southern Connections on biota in the southern hemisphere in Valdivia in Chile with a week-long excursion in the Andes through. A few days after his return, a brain tumor he was diagnosed with, where he died on 1 August 1997.
Honors
Works (selection)
Systematic studies in the Eucalypts. 7 A revision of the blood woods, genus Corymbia ( Myrtaceae ) in Telopea, Volume 6 (2-3 ), 1995