Brian Morey Boom (born 24 February 1954) is an American
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
who specializes in the
flora of the
Guianas
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* ...
and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, the family
Rubiaceae,
ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...
, and economic botany.
Biography
At the
University of Memphis he graduated in 1977 with a B.S. in biology and in 1979 with an M.S. in botany. At the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1983 with dissertation ''A Revision of Isertia (Isertieae: Rubiaceae)''.
His doctoral advisor was
Scott A. Mori
Scott Alan Mori (October 13, 1941, Janesville, Wisconsin – August 12, 2020) was a swiss and american botanist and plant collector. He specialized in the systematics and ecology of neotropical Lecythidaceae and Amazonian and Guianian floristics.
...
.
From 1972 to 1977 Boom worked at the Memphis Museum. From 1977 and 1979 he worked as a research assistant in the
University of Tennessee's department of botany. Since 1980 he has worked in various positions at the
New York Botanical Garden. There he is, since 2012, the Bassett Maguire Curator of Botany and, since 2014, the director of the New York Botanical Garden Press. On leaves of absence from the New York Botanical Garden, he has held various temporary appointments, including president of the
All Species Foundation
The All Species Foundation (stylized as ALL Species Foundation) was an organization aiming to catalog all species on Earth by 2025 through their All Species Inventory initiative. The project was launched in 2000 by Kevin Kelly, Stewart Brand an ...
in 2001 and associate director for research at
Columbia University's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) from 2002 to 2004.
[
In addition to these positions, Boom has held appointments at universities. From 1988 to 1990 he was an adjunct assistant professor in the biology department of ]Lehman College
Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehma ...
(City University of New York). In the same years, he was also a visiting fellow at the ''Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia'' (INPA) in Manaus
Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...
(Brazil). At Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies he was from 1986 to 1992 a guest lecturer in the tropical sciences and from 1992 to 1996 an adjunct associate professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
Overview
In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...
in tropical dendrology. From 1995 to 2002 he was a visiting professor in the biology department of New York University. Since 1995, he has been an assistant senior researcher at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at Columbia University.[
Boom is a member of the ]American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
, the American Public Gardens Association
The American Public Gardens Association, formerly the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, is an association of public-garden institutions and professionals primarily in the United States and Canada. Over the last six decades, ...
, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Botanical Society of America
The Botanical Society of America (BSA) represents professional and amateur botanists, researchers, educators and students in over 80 countries of the world. It functions as a United States nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership society.
History
The soci ...
, the International Association for Plant Taxonomy
The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...
, the National Geographic Society (lifetime member), the Society for Economic Botany (as president from 2001 to 2002), the Torrey Botanical Society
Torrey Botanical Society (formerly Torrey Botanical Club) was started in the 1860s by colleagues of John Torrey. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas. The Society promotes the exploration and study of plant life, with particular ...
(chair from 2007 to 2011), and the Linnean Society of London. He is also involved in the Organization for Flora Neotropica The Organization for Flora Neotropica (OFN) is a UNESCO nongovernmental organization in Category B (biosphere reserves). OFN was founded in 1964, due to the efforts of the botanists José Cuatrecasas and F. Raymond Fosberg. OFN's main goal is the p ...
.[
Boom has done field work in United States, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, ]Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
, Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. He led ecotours for the board of the New York Botanical Garden to Ecuador in 1992, to Brazil in 1993, 1999, and 2009, to Puerto Rico in 1994, to Costa Rica in 2004, to Chile in 2005, and to Cuba in 2012 (3 trips).[
He has done research on systematic botany, economic botany, biodiversity inventory in tropical forests, and the relationships between plants and people living in neotropical forests. His research deals with various plant groups, including the plant families Isoetaceae, Gentianaceae, Theaceae and in particular Rubiaceae. Within the family Rubiaceae his research focuses on the genus '' Isertia '' (of which he has performed a ]taxonomic
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
revision) and on