Edward Clive Dickinson (born 6 March 1938) is a British

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

specialising in the

taxonomy 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. ...

southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n birds.

Biography

Edward Dickinson was born in 1938, in

Paget Parish Paget Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named for William Paget, 4th Baron Paget de Beaudesert (1572–1629). The parish is located in the central south of the island chain, immediately south of Hamilton Harbor on t ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, the son of Lionel Gilbert Dickinson and Eileen Dickinson née Barlow. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. After leaving school he worked from 1962 as a product manager for Pronesiam Inc. in Bangkok. In 1965 he married Dorothy Sopper, with whom he has two children. From 1968 to 1970, he was the editor of the ''National Historical Bulletin'' of the

Siam Society The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage ( th, สยามสมาคมในพระบรมราชูปถัมภ์) was established in 1904 with a mission to promote knowledge of the culture, history, arts, and natural sciences of Thai ...

. In 1971, Dickinson moved to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

, where he worked until 1973 as a project manager. From 1973 to 1975, he worked for Filipro in Manila. In 1975, Dickinson had his first ornithological book published, ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia'', coauthored with Ben F. King. In 1991, his ''The Birds of the Philippines: An Annotated Checklist'' was published. It was followed by various manuals and checklists, and finally a professional ornithological position at

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, where he worked as a research associate as of 2012. Dickinson founded the publishing house Aves Press Limited, and is a member of the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. Dickinson has built on his lifelong passion for ornithology to make numerous contributions to taxonomy. Together with René Dekker he wrote ''Systematic Notes on Asian Birds'', a series of articles devoted to the taxonomic revision of the Asian avifauna. Since 2011 he has been the editor of ''Zoological Bibliography'', an

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

journal for taxonomy. In 1997, Dickinson took on editorship of the Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World, contributing to the publication of the 3rd Edition in 2003 and the 4th in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Edward C. English ornithologists Living people 1938 births British taxonomists People from Paget Parish