{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Richard Pankhurst | image = Portrait of Richard Pankhurst (Botanist).jpg | image_size = 200 | caption = Richard Pankhurst, Outer Hebrides. Photo: Claudia Ferguson-Smyth | birth_name = Richard John Pankhurst | birth_date = 1940 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age |df=yes|2013|3|26 |1940}} | death_place = | death_cause = | residence = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | field = Botany, Biodiversity informatics | work_institution = Natural History Museum, London, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | employer = | occupation = Botanist | website = }} '''Richard John Pankhurst''' (1940<ref name="Pankhurst">{{cite web|url=http://viaf.org/viaf/105630891|title=Richard Pankhurst|work=Virtual International Authority File|accessdate=14 December 2015}}</ref>–2013) was a British computer scientist, botanist and academic. From 1963 to 1966 he worked at CERN, then from 1966 to 1974 on computer-aided design at Cambridge University, and from 1974 to 1991 at the Natural History Museum as curator of the British herbarium. In 1991, he became a Principal Scientific Officer at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.<ref name="bgbm">{{cite web|url=http://www.bgbm.org/BioCise/TheProject/Members/Pankhurst.htm|title=Dr. Richard J. Pankhurst|work=BioCISE|accessdate=14 December 2015}}</ref>
He published over fifty peer reviewed papers<ref name="bgbm" /> and sat on several committees:<ref name="bgbm" />
* Botanical Society of the British Isles: Committee for Scotland; Database Committee * Botanical Society of Scotland: Council * Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG): Descriptors Group (as convenor) * International Organisation for Plant Information: Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee (co-convener)
His book ''Biological Identification'' (1978) has been described as " the first textbook on computer methods in identification".<ref name="bgbm" />
Pankhurst died in 2013,<ref name="tdwg">{{cite web|url=http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg/2013-April/000493.html|title=In Memoriam Dr Richard Pankhurst|accessdate=14 December 2015}}</ref> a year after the species ''Taraxacum pankhurstianum'', endemic to St. Kilda, was named in his honour, for his suggestion that the seed from which it was grown at Edinburgh be collected.<ref name="RBGE">{{cite web|url=http://www.rbge.org.uk/about-us/news/stories/new-dandelion-found|title=New Dandelion Found|author=Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh|accessdate=29 June 2012|archive-date=26 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926054125/http://www.rbge.org.uk/about-us/news/stories/new-dandelion-found|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-18628463|date=29 June 2012|author=BBC News|title=New species of dandelion discovered on St Kilda island|accessdate=16 April 2018}}</ref><ref name="Richards2012">{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=A J |last2=Ferguson-Smyth |first2=C C |year=2012 |title=''Taraxacum pankhurstianum'' (Asteraceae), a new dandelion endemic to St Kilda, Outer Hebrides, Scotland |journal=New Journal of Botany |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=16–19 |issn=2042-3489 |doi=10.1179/2042349712Y.0000000006|s2cid=84572499 }}</ref>
== Selected works ==
* {{citation |author=Pankhurst, R.J. |year=1970 |title=A computer program for generating diagnostic keys |journal=The Computer Journal |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=145–151 |url=http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/2/145.full.pdf+html |doi=10.1093/comjnl/13.2.145|doi-access=free }}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} * {{citation |editor=Pankhurst, R.J. |year=1975 |title=Biological identification with computers |volume=Systematics Association Special Volume 7 |publisher=Academic Press |location=London and Orlando |isbn=978-0125448505}} * {{Cite book |title=Biological Identification: The Principles and Practice of Identification Methods in Biology |last=Pankhurst |first=Richard J. |year=1978 |publisher=Edward Arnold |isbn=9780839113447 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/biologicalidenti0000pank }} * {{Cite book |title= Flora of the Outer Hebrides |last1=Pankhurst |first1=Richard J. |last2=Mullin |first2=J.M. |year=1991 |publisher=Pelagic Publishing Limited |isbn=9781907807497 }} * {{Cite book |title=Practical Taxonomic Computing |year=1991 |last = Pankhurst |first=Richard J. |publisher = Cambridge University Press |isbn= 9780521417600 }} * {{citation |author=Pankhurst, R.J. |year=1993 |title=Advances in computer methods for systematic biology: Artificial intelligence, databases, computer vision |chapter=Principles and practices of identification |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |editor=R. Fortuner |isbn=0801844924 |pages=125–136}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pankhurst, Richard}} Category:1940 births Category:2013 deaths Category:20th-century British botanists Category:British computer scientists Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:People associated with CERN
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