Dan H. Nicolson (1933-2016)

Widely known for his systematic work on the plant family Araceae, Nicolson was an expert of Indian flora and one of the foremost specialists of botanical nomenclature. After his doctoral dissertation in 1964, he immediately took a position in the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution, not knowing that he would remain there throughout his career, and even after his retirement (2006), when he continued to go to the Museum almost every day for a few more years. He edited the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal scientific names given to plants, which are thereafter accepted worldwide. His passion for scientific expeditions and botanical history led him to complete the work done by Raymond Fosberg (curator in the same Botany department, who died in 1993) on the botanical discoveries made by father and son Forster during the second Cook Expedition, which was published in 2004 with the title: Fosberg F.R.: The Forsters and the botany of the second Cook Expedition (1772–1775).

Help Support Medical Innovation