Anthony David Bradshaw FRS (17 January 1926 – 21 August 2008) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Early life and education

Bradshaw was born in Kew, Surrey and educated at St Pauls School, Hammersmith. His father was

H. Chalton Bradshaw Harold Chalton Bradshaw CBE M.Arch FRIBA (15 February 1893 – 15 October 1943), 23 October 2007, accessed 28 December 2007 was a Liverpool-born architect, recipient of the first Rome scholarship in Architecture (1913) & first Secretary of The Roy ...

, an architect. Bradshaw later read Botany at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

and in 1947 moved to the

University College of Wales , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

, first as a research student in Aberystwyth University and then as a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Botany at Bangor University. There he worked on the adaptation of plants to heavy metal pollution, demonstrating the ability of natural selection to bring about rapid evolutionary changes in natural grasses, even in very localized situations.

Career and later life

In 1968 Bradshaw accepted the position of Chair of Botany at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

where he pioneered novel ideas in the field of restoration ecology to polluted sites recover without the need to cover them in imported topsoil. His work on the revegetation of china clay tips in Cornwall formed the basis of the techniques behind the

Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS ...

. In 1982 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. He was President of the

British Ecological Society The British Ecological Society is a learned society in the field of ecology that was founded in 1913. It is the oldest ecological society in the world. The Society's original objective was "to promote and foster the study of Ecology in its widest ...

for 1982–83 and the Inaugural President of the

Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

in 1991–94. In 1991 he delivered the

Croonian Lecture The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow a single ...

to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

on ''Genostasis and the limits to Evolution''. He married Betty Alliston and had 3 daughters.

References

1926 births 2008 deaths People from Kew, London People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge British ecologists Evolutionary ecologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering {{biologist-stub