Gwilym Peter Lewis (born 1952) is a British botanist, a curator at the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...
, and a leading expert on neotropical ''
''.
Education and career
Lewis graduated in 1973 with a B.Sc. from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
. He eventually became the head of the legume section at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which he joined in 1974. In his research on the legume family he has contributed to the description of 58 species and 11 genera. He has also contributed to several taxonomic revisions, especially for the genus ''
Caesalpinia''.
In 1994 he received a Ph.D. from the
University of St. Andrews. His doctoral dissertation, supervised by Peter Edward Gibbs, is entitled ''Systematic studies in neotropical 'Caesalpinia L.' (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae), including a revision of the 'Poincianella-Erythrostemon group' ''.
Lewis has collected thousands of botanical specimens and has done botanical "fieldwork in Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador, Central America, Mexico and Madagascar".
[ He has been a plant co-collector with over twenty different botanists. During his career at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, his research has focused on "]systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...
, phylogenetics
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek language, Greek wikt:φυλή, φυλή/wikt:φῦλον, φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary his ...
, biogeography, Biodiversity, diversity and comparative biology of neotropical (mainly South American) Leguminosae, especially Caesalpinioideae (particularly '' Caesalpinia'') and ''Mimosoideae
The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family (Fabaceae) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals ...
''. Floristic studies focus on the drylands and wet tropics of Brazil and the Andes of Ecuador, including monographic work on the large genus ''Caesalpinia''."
His numerous scientific articles (over 250 as author or co-author)[ have been published in leading journals such as '' Brittonia'', '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' and '' Kew Bulletin''. The book ''Legumes of the World'', of which he is the lead author, has been awarded the 2006 Annual Literature Award in the Technical Category from the ]Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries
The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, Inc. (CBHL) is a professional organization in the field of botanical and horticultural information services. Its purpose is to initiate and improve communication and coordinate activities and pr ...
.
In 1995 Lewis received the Rupert Barneby Award from the New York Botanical Garden to enable him, as a visiting researcher for the year 1996, to do research on the legume family of Ecuador.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 ...
and 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 ...
.
Selected publications
Articles
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Gwilym Peter
1952 births
Living people
20th-century British botanists
21st-century British botanists
Alumni of the University of London
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
Botanists active in Kew Gardens