From Plant Press, Vol. 18, No. 4, October 2015.
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) selected Warren Wagner for its 2015 Asa Gray Award, one of the most prestigious honors in the botanical sciences. The award is named for Asa Gray (1810-1888), considered by many to be the most important American botanist of the 19th century. The award recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of plant systematics.
Wagner’s recognition follows a nomination consisting of numerous testimonial letters from experts from across the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. Kenneth Sytsma (University of Wisconsin – Madison), the primary nominator, attributes this broad show of support to Wagner’s impressive contributions to not only plant systematics, but to disciplines including biogeography, ecology, restoration biology, and conservation. Letter writer Peter Hoch (Missouri Botanical Garden) spoke to Wagner’s core passion for biodiversity when he wrote, “As a ‘field and floristic’ taxonomist, there are few in his generation who have accomplished more.”
A native of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Wagner attended college at the University of New Mexico where he completed his bachelor’s degree in 1973 and, subsequently, a master’s degree in 1977. Under the advisement of Peter Raven, Dr. Wagner completed his doctorate at Washington University in 1981. Following a postdoctoral appointment at the Missouri Botanical Garden, he spent 1982-1988 at the Bishop Museum before arriving at the Smithsonian in 1988. He has held the prestigious McBryde Chair at the National Tropical Botanical Garden since 2004.
In his career, Wagner has published nearly 200 scholarly articles and edited four books. He has authored or co-authored seven taxonomic monographs, but is perhaps best known for his multidisciplinary work on South Pacific floras, evolution, and biogeography. Bruce Baldwin (University of California Berkeley) cites Wagner as “unquestionably the world authority on the Hawaiian angiosperm flora,” a reputation that was solidified and nourished by his publication of (and continued work on) the Manual of Flowering Plants of Hawai’i a quarter century ago. That effort was followed by his co-editorship (with Vicki Funk) of the symposium volume Hawaiian Biogeography: Evolution on a Hot Spot Archipelago, a publication that Sytsma credits as “laying the foundation for integrative evolutionary and biogeographic research on Hawaiian organismal diversity that has continued to this day.”
As the longtime Chair of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution, Wagner has done much to ensure the health of systematics at one of the primary centers in the field. In this vein, he has been what Smithsonian colleague Jun Wen calls a “fantastic mentor” of young scientists, with a gift for “letting the young colleagues maximize their creativity and productivity on important evolutionary and systematic research projects.”
Wagner’s previous honors include the Merit Award from the Botanical Society of America, the Robert Allerton Award from the National Botanical Garden, the Henry Gleason Award from the New York Botanical Garden, and (twice) the National Museum of Natural History Science Achievement Award. He is the 34th scientist to be recognized with the ASPT Asa Gray Award.
-Adapted from aspt.net
Comments