Regius Professor of Botany (Cambridge)

The Regius Professor of Botany is a 2009 by Foundation of Elizabeth II. Founded Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge . The professorship itself was founded in 1724 and was appointed Regius Professorship in 2009 on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the university. The professorship is the first appointment to the Regius Professorship since 1912, when the last Regius Professorship was established in Aberdeen .

In addition to the Regius Professorship for Botany in Cambridge, there are also Regius Professorships in Botany at the Universities of Aberdeen ( Regius Professor of Botany (Aberdeen) since 1860), University of Edinburgh ( Regius Professor of Plant Science since 1710) and Glasgow ( Regius Professor of Botany (Glasgow) since 1811).

History of the chair

Richard Bradley, born in 1688, received a good education but no university education. Even so, he published on many medical and scientific fields. He was famous for his knowledge of botany. In doing so, he caught the attention of wealthy patrons. On behalf of James Brydges , he organized the planting of Cannons Parks. In 1724 Bradley was appointed professor of botany at Cambridge on the recommendation of William Sherard . As part of his job, Bradley was to create a botanical garden . This botanical garden did not come about, but Bradleys clearly set out the benefits of such a garden for Cambridge and teaching. Even if Bradley looked more like a gardener than a botanist compared to his successors , he was one of the first to describe the connections between plants and their environment (see plant ecology ). With his work on the production of hybrids , he made lasting contributions to botany.

Bradley's successor in the professorship, botanist John Martyn , was a deserved and recognized botanist. He held the professorship for many years, but only taught botany there for a few years and resigned from the professorship in 1761 in favor of his son Thomas Martyn. He held the professorship for 63 years, but only taught until 1796. Thomas was one of the first British botanists who adopted the taxonomic system of Carl von Linné and represented it in teaching.

Martyn's successor, John Stevens Henslow , resigned his professorship in mineralogy for the botany professorship. He eventually founded the botanical garden, which Professor Bradley had not established, the Cambridge University Botanical Garden, and thus one of the most important gardens in Great Britain today.

After Henslow's death, Charles Cardale Babington took over the professorship, who wrote the Manual of British Botany, one of the standard works of botany. Babington brought British botany on a level with the European state of research, first with Germany, then with France and Scandinavia. His successor Harry Marshall Ward was interested in plant pathology and mycology with work on diseases of crops . After Ward's death, Albert Charles Seward took over the professorship after an academic career in Cambridge. His interests also extended into mineralogy and geology, so that he became known as an important paleobotanist . However, that did not prevent him from making mistakes on some points. For example, he denied the biological origin of the stromatolites .

In 1936, after Seward's withdrawal, Frederick Tom Brooks , a specialist in plant pathology, took over the professorship again and held the chair until 1948. His successor, George Edward Briggs , wrote important works on the enzymes in plants. With Harry Godwin , another botanist took over the professorship who was looking for important impulses in field work. Godwin was recognized authority on wetlands and coined the term "Peatland Archives" ( peat archive ) for the character of wetlands to preserve environmental influences reproducible. In addition, he developed radiocarbon dating, which was just discovered at the time .

When Godwin withdrew from the professorship, Percy Wragg Brian was taken over by a man who had previously been Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow for almost six years . He and his team developed antibiotics . He was followed by Richard Gilbert West , a disciple of Godwin's chair and thus again a professor interested in paleobotany.

When West retired in 1991, Thomas ap Rees was appointed. He developed a course in cell biology in collaboration with the zoology, biochemistry, and genetics departments. His extensive scientific work was ended by the tragic accident in 1996 in which he was involved as a cyclist. Roger Allen Leigh then took over the professorship, but left it to take over the management of the School of Agriculture, Food & Wine at the University of Adelaide .

In 2007 David Baulcombe took over the professorship. He became the University of Cambridge's first Regius Professor of Botany in 2009 when Queen Elizabeth II established the first Regius Professorship in almost 100 years to mark the 800th anniversary of the university.

Holder of the chair

Professor of Botany

Surname	name suffix	from	to	annotation
Richard Bradley		1724	1733
John Martyn		1733	1761
Thomas Martyn		1762	1825	Martyn was one of the first scientists to recognize the importance of the Linnaeus system and taught it at university.
John Stevens Henslow		1825	1861
Charles Cardale Babington		1861	1895
Harry Marshall Ward		1895	1906	The plant pathologist Ward raised funds so that the institute could build its own building in 1904.
Albert Charles Seward		1906	1936
Frederick Tom Brooks		1936	1948
George Edward Briggs		1948	1960	Briggs laid the foundations for the study of quantitative plant physiology.
Harry Godwin		1960	1968
Percy Wragg Brian		1968	1977
Richard Gilbert West		1977	1991
Thomas ap Rees		1991	1996
Roger Allen Leigh		1998	2007
David Baulcombe		2007	2009	see below

Regius Professors of Botany

Surname	Data	from	to	annotation
David Baulcombe		2009	2019	Baulcombe became known for his contributions to the deactivation of RNA sequences in the plant genome, to epigenetics and to research into resistance. In 2019, the search for a successor to Baulcombe began.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} A new Regius Professor for the University . Cambridge University website, November 23, 2009; Retrieved February 5, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} The Regius Professorship of Botany. (PDF) Department of Plant Sciences. In: University of Cambridge website; Human Resources. Retrieved June 26, 2019 .  
3. ^ A new Regius Professor for the University . University of Cambridge Office of Communications; Cambridge Network, November 25, 2009;
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Sir Hans Sloan: An Eighteenth-Century Rogue
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Nuala C. Johnson: Nature Displaced, Nature Displayed: Order and Beauty in Botanical Gardens . IB Tauris, 2011, ISBN 978-0-85773-547-8 .
6. ^ ^{A b} George Cornelius Gorham: Memoirs of John Martyn and of Thomas Martyn: Professors of Botany in the University of Cambridge (1830) . Kessinger Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-120-00406-2 .
7. ↑ ^{a b} George Simonds Boulger:  Martyn, Thomas (1735-1825) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 36:  Malthus - Mason. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1893 (English).
8. ↑ ^{a b} Portrait of John Stevens Henslow ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Diocese of Ely website; Retrieved February 7, 2015. 
9. ^ ^{A b} George Simonds Boulger:  Babington, Charles Cardale . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Suppl. 1, Volume 1:  Abbott-Childers. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1901 (English).
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Percy Brian. The University of Glasgow Story; accessed January 21, 2015.
11. ^ ^{A b} Charles Turner, Philip Gibbard: Richard West - An Appreciation . (PDF) Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes
12. ↑ ^{a b c d} David Summers, Ed Tanner, Tony Kirby: Obituary: Professor Thomas ap Rees . In: The Independent , October 10, 1996; Retrieved February 8, 2015.
13. ^ Professor Roger Leigh. In: University Staff Directory , on the University of Adelaide website; Retrieved February 7, 2015.
14. ↑ Professor Sir David Baulcombe ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. University of Cambridge website; Retrieved February 5, 2015.