Willis Linn Jepson

Willis Linn Jepson
Willis Linn Jepson
	Jepson in 1911
Born	August 19, 1867; Vacaville, California, U.S.
Died	November 7, 1946 (aged 79); Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Berkley
Occupation	Botanist, conservationist
Notable work	A Flora of California (1909)

Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer.

Career

Born at Little Oak Ranch near Vacaville, California, Jepson became interested in botany as a boy and explored the adjacent San Francisco Bay Area. He came in contact with various botanists before he entered college.

In 1892, at the age of 25, Jepson, John Muir, and Warren Olney formed the Sierra Club, in Olney's San Francisco law office. From 1895 to 1898, Jepson served as instructor and carried on research at the University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University (1895), and Harvard University (1896–1897). He received his Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1899.

He was made assistant professor in 1899, associate professor in 1911, professor in 1918, and professor emeritus in 1937. He was a Professor of Botany at UC Berkeley for four decades, thus his entire career was identified with the University of California. Jepson founded the California Botanical Society and served as its president from 1913 to 1915; he also worked as councilor of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

Legacy

His specimens, extensive archives and fieldbooks are housed in the University and Jepson Herbaria libraries and archives. Most of his specimens from California have been databased in the Jepson eFlora and form a multi-institutional Consortium of California Herbaria database.

Many honors and commemorations came to Jepson during his lifetime and as well as posthumously

He was granted a fellowship to the California Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Geographical Society
Member of the American Genetic Association, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Botanical Society of America, Society of American Foresters, Washington Academy of Sciences, Western Society of Naturalists, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi
Foreign member of the Royal Society of Arts, Société linnéenne de Lyon, and Czechoslovak Botanical Society
Colleagues at UC Berkeley honored him with the Faculty Research Lectureship in 1934
The Saxifragaceae genus Jepsonia and its species are named after him
The Jepson Herbarium at UC Berkeley is named for him
The The Jepson Manual is named in his honor

Publications

Jepson wrote at least 11 books during his lifetime, with two focused on California's trees. His works include A Flora of California (1909), The Trees of California (1909); and the major A Manual of the Flowering Plants of California (1925), predecessor of The Jepson Manual (1993).

A Flora of California – Volume I. San Francisco: Cunningham, Curtiss & Welch. 1909a. OCLC 755039635.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
A Flora of California – Volume II. San Francisco: Cunningham, Curtiss & Welch. 1909b. OCLC 755039635.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

References

Footnotes

IPNI. Jeps.

Bibliography

Beidleman, R. G. (2000). "Willis Linn Jepson—"The Botany Man"". Madroño. 47 (4): 273–286. JSTOR 41426286.
Constance, L. (June 1947). "Willis Linn Jepson, 1867–1946". Science. 105 (2737): 614. Bibcode:1947Sci...105..614C. doi:10.1126/science.105.2737.614. PMID 17788560.
Davis, A. R.; et al. (1946). "Willis Linn Jepson (1867–1946)". Jepson Herbarium. UC Berkeley. Retrieved November 15, 2020.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] IPNI. Jeps.