April 1997: Issue 11

Welcome to the sixth edition of Kew Scientist to be made available on the Internet. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email them to Dr Geoff Kite

Features in this issue:

Director's Message: Innovation

Information and innovation are of considerable topical importance to RBG Kew. The new Information Services Department (ISD) was created to co-ordinate better the work of our computer section, library, media resources and publications units. I thank Prof. Gren Lucas for staying an extra year to set up ISD and welcome Alyson Prior as its new head. The department faces many challenges, such as the increase in electronic publication and the computerisation of herbarium data. I recently enjoyed reviewing our first scientific paper to be published on Kew's Web site, a database of angiosperm DNA C-values by Prof. Michael Bennett, Dr Tony Cox and Dr Ilia Leitch.

It will be some time before we fully computerise the Herbarium, but I was glad to attend a demonstration recently of the CRIS system for herbarium transaction management developed by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The system appears to meet our needs with only little modification and is a good start to bringing better information management to the Herbarium.

RBG Kew is also one of the founder members of a new organisation, The Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), which held a recent meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. The consortium, initially of eight major systematic institutions in Europe but soon to be enlarged, has been set up to make a concerted effort to obtain European Union funding through Framework 5 for the vital task of computerising the data held in systematic collections. This is a need both for research and conservation and for the repatriation of data to the many countries from which the collections originated. Prof. Simon Owens and I are currently representing RBG Kew at the meetings of CETAF and further details can be obtained from either of us.

I would like to congratulate Dr Tony Cox who is the first recipient of our newly established Science Innovation Awards for his development of IBIS. These awards, made possible by a recent legacy, are to support new developments which promote the likes of Kew 2020. Tony was presented with a certificate and £5,000 towards IBIS at a recent Science Innovation Lecture. The current series of these lectures is addressing the important topic of intellectual property rights and benefit sharing. It has got off to an excellent start with lectures from Dr Darell Posey and Dr Gary Martin, two well-known ethnobiologists. Kew continues to take a lead on these issues which have come to the fore through the Convention on Biological Diversity. Our work is led by the barrister and staff member Kerry ten Kate who has been involved since the early stage of the drafting of the Convention.

Contact Prof. Sir Ghillean T. Prance, Director

Email: Ghillean Prance

Dahlgren Prize

Dr Mark Chase has been awarded two Swedish honours in recognition of his work on plant systematics. In December 1996, he received the Rolf Dahlgren Prize from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, and in 1997, he has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala, which will be conferred at a ceremony in Uppsala in May.

PhD Awards

Innovation often comes from doctoral research, such as that undertaken by four students who were recently awarded their PhDs. Dr Madeline Harley's assessment of fossil palm pollen from detailed studies of extant species led to theories on the evolution of palm pollen aperture and exine types and a re-consideration of angiosperm pollen evolution. Dr Sasha Barrow used combined morphological, anatomical and molecular data sets to elucidate systematic relationships in Phoenix for her monograph of the genus. Dr Kathryn Steadman's research on the role of sugars in seed desiccation revealed that ratios of soluble sugars can be used as diagnostic markers for storage behaviour. Finally, Dr Paul Bremner isolated four insect antifeedant diterpenoids from Ajuga reptans to reveal novel structure-activity relationships. Kathryn and Paul have now begun research posts at Cornell and the University of Pretoria, respectively, while Sasha is preparing a post-doctoral proposal at Kew - Madeline remains a staff member!
Dr. Paul Bremner

Darwin Awards

Darwin Initiative awards were announced in March. Kew is involved in three of the successful projects. Dr John Dransfield and Dr Nick Brown (Oxford Forestry Institute) will supervise a study on the rattans of Laos with field work undertaken by Tom Evans. A rattan identification manual will be produced with Mr Sounthone Ketpanh of the Lao Forestry Department and field trials in one of the national parks will provide data for the sustainable management of wild rattan, the country's most important non-timber forest product. The second award supports Kew's work on the Biodiversity Convention with funding for two 'Darwin Biodiversity Convention Fellows' (the Weston Family is also to support the Biodiversity Conventions Officer and a Biodiversity Conventions Researcher for the next three years). A third award will enable Kew to help Tunisians conserve plants in arid and s emi-arid areas and assess their economic potential. The project provides funds to support the development of a medicinal plant garden in Monastir.

Kew Scientist

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB.

Tel: 0181 332 5000 Fax: 0181 332 5310

Editor: Prof Mike Bennett

Production Editor: Dr Geoff Kite

Editorial Advisory Team:

Herbarium: Dr P. Cribb, D. Field, Dr N. Hind, P. Boyce, N. McGough, Dr A. Paton

Jodrell Laboratory: Prof M. Bennett, Dr P. Rudall, Dr A. Cox, Dr G. Kite, Dr R. Probert

Living Collections: M. Maunder, Dr M. Fay, A. Jackson, M. Sinnott, J. Lonsdale

Internet Editor: Tony Cox (Jodrell Laboratory)

Published twice yearly in April and October

To be included on the mailing list please contact Dr Geoff Kite

Back to Kew Scientist Index Page