David Mabberley

David Mabberley AM
D. J. Mabberley, May 1974, with Chisocheton macranthus
Born	May 1948 (1948-05) (age 69) Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England
Other names	David John Mabberley
Residence	Mount Victoria, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Botany
Education	Rendcomb College
Alma mater	St Catherine's College, Oxford Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge St John's College, Oxford Wadham College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor	E. J. H. Corner
Known for	The plant-book
Notable awards	Engler Medal in Silver (2009) José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany Linnean Medal
Author abbrev. (botany)	Mabberley

Professor David John Mabberley AM, (born May 1948) is a British botanist, educator and writer. Among his varied scientific interests is the taxonomy of tropical plants, especially trees of the families Labiatae, Meliaceae and Rutaceae. He is perhaps best known for his plant dictionary The plant-book. A portable dictionary of the vascular plants. The third edition was published in 2008 as Mabberley's Plant-book, for which he was awarded the Engler Medal in Silver in 2009.

Born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, Mabberley won a scholarship to Rendcomb College, Cirencester, then an open scholarship to St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1970 and M.A. in 1974. Although he intended to work for a doctorate under the cytologist C. D. Darlington he was inspired to move to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, under the supervision of E. J. H. Corner, leading to a Ph.D. in 1973 and D.Phil. (Oxon) in 1975. In 1973 Mabberley was elected the first Claridge Druce junior research fellow at St John's College, Oxford, before being appointed in 1976 to a tutorial fellowship at Wadham College, Oxford (linked to a university lectureship in the Department of Botany, later Plant Sciences, where he set up the "Mablab" with graduate students and post-doctoral research workers from around the world). He served as Dean of Wadham College for many years and was senior proctor at Oxford 1988–1989, later becoming Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria. He has also served in various capacities at numerous universities around the world, including University of Paris (France), University of Leiden (the Netherlands), University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka), and the University of Western Sydney and Macquarie University (both in New South Wales, Australia). He has held a chair at the University of Leiden since 1995.