People
Malcolm Tompkins, Patricia
| Job Title | Project Manager - African Floras Digitisation project. |
|---|---|
| Department | Herbarium |
| Section | Drylands: Africa |
| Science Teams |
Wet Tropics: Africa Drylands: Africa |
| Joined Kew | 2003 |
| Foreign Language(s) | Spanish (mother tongue), French (5 years studies) |
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc (Hons), Plant Science (Botany), Royal Holloway, University of London, 2001.
Role
Management of the African Floras Digitisation Project; electronic floras; interactive keys.
Involved in developing the method for digitizing, marking-up and databasing 'legacy' texts such as Floras, monographs, etc. Managing the African Floras Digitisation Project which currently is set to digitise Flora of Tropical East Africa, Flora of Tropical Africa and Flora Capensis. Day to day management and in-post training of two Text Officers; liaison with the Publications Officer for the OCR of the texts; evaluation of the accuracy of the OCR of samples; structural analysis of the texts; ongoing revision of MSWord macros and XSLTs based on the text samples; further development and refinement of the methods.
Liaising with the editor of Flora Zambesiaca (in the Drylands Africa Team) for further development of the e-floras concept. Combining Floras and monographs already digitised i.e. Flora of West Tropical Africa and Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Mistletoes of Africa to create an on-line resource.
Use of information found in these Floras and monographs for the generation of interactive keys and analysis of patterns of distribution of species.
Ongoing training of the MSB team on Seed Collection Guides using BRAHMS and word macros.
Projects
Interactive Key to African Plants
MSB Enhancement Project Part 1A – Species Targeting
Theme: Climate and Reproductive Biology
Selected Publications 2001-2005
Kirkup D., Malcolm P., Christian G. & Paton A. (2005). Towards a digital African Flora. Taxon 5(2): 457-466.
Wagstaff C., Malcolm P., Rafiq A., Leverentz M., Griffiths G., Thomas B., Stead A. & Rogers H. (2003). Programmed cell death (PCD) processes begin extremely early in Alstroemeria petal senescence. New Phytologist 160(1): 49-59.