David Graham Lloyd (20 June 1937 – 30 May 2006) was an evolutionary biologist and the seventh New Zealander to be elected as a fellow of the
Royal Society in London. He did pioneering work in the field of
plant reproduction.
In December 1992, Lloyd fell victim to an apparent poisoning by
acrylamide
Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH2=CHC(O)NH2. It is a white odorless solid, soluble in water and several organic solvents. From the chemistry perspective, acrylamide is a vinyl-substituted primary ...
, a common laboratory chemical. As a result, he lay in a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
for three months and was left blind, mute, and
quadriplegic.
His former partner and fellow molecular biologist
Vicki Calder was tried twice for his attempted murder. The first trial ended with a
hung jury and the second
acquitted her.
Jury Acquits Woman Accused of Poisoning Scientist Boyfriend
AP News Archive, 19 April 1996
Research
Lloyd's major contribution to botany was in the field of plant reproduction. His contributions to the field include a mechanistic treatment of different modes of self-pollination in hermaphroditic plants, a genetically defined continuum of plant gender, early development of theory of the evolution of separate sexes in plants, and with C.J. Webb, a challenge to conventional views of the evolution of heterostyly. Because of his ideas and work on population biology of plants, he is sometimes referred to as the "W.D. Hamilton
William Donald Hamilton (1 August 1936 – 7 March 2000) was a British evolutionary biologist, recognised as one of the most significant evolutionary theorists of the 20th century.
Hamilton became known for his theoretical work expounding a ...
in plant biology".
References
External links
New Zealand Herald obituaryAcrylamide poisoning trialLloyd's 1980 publication: A quantitative method for describing the gender of plants
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, David
1937 births
2006 deaths
New Zealand blind people
20th-century New Zealand botanists
New Zealand Fellows of the Royal Society
New Zealand victims of crime
People with tetraplegia
Scientists with disabilities