Laurence "Larry" Joseph Dorr (born September 18, 1953, in Boston) is an American botanist and plant collector. He specializes in the systematics of the order

Malvales The Malvales are an order of flowering plants. As circumscribed by APG II-system, the order includes about 6000 species within 9 families. The order is placed in the eurosids II, which are part of the eudicots. The plants are mostly shrubs and ...

and the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

Biography

In 1971 Dorr graduated from

Roxbury Latin School The Roxbury Latin School is a private boys' day school that was founded in 1645 in the town of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. It bills ...

and matriculated at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. By his junior year, he took a break for a year, hiked the entire

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

in five months, and then went plant collecting in British Columbia and Alaska. In 1976 he received a bachelor's degree in earth sciences and planetology from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1980 he received a master's degree in botany from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. In 1983 he received a Ph.D. From

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

with dissertation "The Systematics and Evolution of the Genus ''

Callirhoe Callirrhoe (, grc, Καλλιρρόη; also Callirhoe) may refer to: * Callirhoe (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology, including: ** Callirrhoe (Oceanid), daughter of Oceanus and Tethys ** Callirrhoe (daughter of Achelous) * Callirrhoe ...

'' (

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...

)". He set up a program of research and exploration in Madagascar for the Missouri Botanical Garden from 1983 to 1986, was a lecturer in organismal biology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987, and explored for plants in the northern Andes for the New York Botanical Garden from 1988 to 1991. At the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

, he became in 1991 an associate curator in the botany department as an associate curator. There he works on systematic botany and floristic accounts of Malvales and Ericaceae, biocomplexity of flora of the northern Andes, and history of botanical investigation in Madagascar and neighboring islands, as well as natural history during the 19th century in the United States. Dorr and his colleagues have done considerable work in improving the

U.S. National Herbarium The United States National Herbarium is a collection of five million preserved plant specimens housed in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It represents about 8% of the ...

. He was from 1992 to 1996 editor-in-chief of the ''ASPT Newsletter''. He has served on the editorial boards of '' BioLlania'', ''

BioScience ''BioScience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. It was established in 1964 and was preceded by the ''AIBS Bulletin'' (1951–19 ...

'', ''

Brittonia ''Brittonia'' is a quarterly, peer-reviewed botanical journal, publishing articles on plants, fungi, algae, and lichens. Published since 1931, it is named after the botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton. Since 2007, the journal has been published by Spr ...

'', ''

Flora Neotropica ''Flora Neotropica'' is a series of monographs published by the New York Botanical Garden Press, and is the official publication of the Organization for Flora Neotropica. It covers the taxonomic treatment of American plants and plant families i ...

'', and ''Taxon''. He is the author or coauthor of over 100 scientific articles and has written or edited several books. Eleven plant species are named in his honor. His elder son often accompanied him on collecting expeditions. Laurence J. Dorr married Lisa Ceryle Barnett in 1984. They have two sons.

Selected publications

Articles

* * * * * * * *

Books

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorr, Laurence Joseph 1953 births Living people 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists Plant collectors Roxbury Latin School alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni Smithsonian Institution people