Richard Neville Lester (13 June 1937 – 4 April 2006) was an English

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 ...

and chemotaxonomist. An English botanist born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He was a student and later (1958) research assistant of Jack Hawkes and took part in

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

collecting expeditions to Central America and Mexico. He obtained his PhD in 1962 for his thesis " Immunochemical studies of the genus ''

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

''", he continued work on the immunotaxonomy of plants, as well as fungi and bats, at the

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 ...

(until 1964), and then at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

(1966-1968). He taught (1964-1966) at

Bolton Institute of Technology , established = 2004 – gained University Status 1982 – Bolton Institute of Higher Education , type = Public , endowment = £160,000 (2009) , administrative_staff = 700+ , chancellor ...

. He spent a year (1968-1969) in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

as a lecturer in botany at

Makerere University Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...

, where he developed his life long interest in the African

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mos ...

, ''Solanum melongena''. From 1969 he was lecturer at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, teaching the course for the M.Sc. in 'Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources'. While at Birmingham he took part in collecting trips to African for additions to the Birmingham ''Solanaceae'' collection. He has published over 135 articles, mostly on the

Solanaceae The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orn ...

. Together with J.G. Hawkes and A.D. Skelding he organised in 1976 the first International Solanaceae Conference. He contributed to and edited (1977-1979) the ''Solanaceae Newsletter'' and was coordinator (1993-1996) of the European Solanaceae Information Network (ESIN). In 1980, together with his student Peter Jaeger, he started a taxonomic revision of all African ''Solanum'' species, which remained incomplete at the time of his death. He retired in 2000 and was later diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer; he died in Birmingham on 4 April 2006. He remained active in retirement and worked (2000-2005) as coordinator of EGGNET where he oversaw the transfer of the endangered Solanaceae collection at Birmingham to Nijmegen Botanical Garden, INRA

Montfavet Montfavet is a district of the city of Avignon in the Vaucluse in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. In southern France, the district is well known for the psychiatric hospital, "Centre Hospitalier Montfavet Avignon" located Montdevergues. S ...

, and Valencia Polytechnic University. He also completed a conspectus of ''Solanum'' with co-author Alan Child. The species ''

Solanum lesteri ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'' Hawkes & Hjerting is named after him. He married Celia Davidson in 1972 and had two children, John and Clare.

Selected publications

* The Biology and taxonomy of the Solanaceae. Hawkes, J. G., Lester, R. N., Skelding, A. D. (1979). Linnean Society of London, Academic Press. * Solanaceae III : taxonomy, chemistry, evolution. Hawkes, J. G., Lester, R. N., Nee, Michael, Estrada, N. (1991). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. International Solanaceae Congress (3rd: 1988 : Bogota, Colombia). * Solanaceae IV : advances in biology and utilization. Lester, R. N., Nee, Michael, Symon, David Eric, Jessop, John. (1999). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. International Solanaceae Congress (4th: 1994 Adelaide).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Richard Neville Botanists with author abbreviations British botanists People from Birmingham, West Midlands 1937 births 2006 deaths Academics of the University of Birmingham Alumni of the University of Birmingham