Harold E. Robinson

Harold Ernest Robinson (born 1932, Syracuse, New York) is an eminent botanist and an entomologist.

Dr. Robinson's systematic knowledge encompasses many groups of plants and even some insects. But his real specialty is the sunflower family (Asteraceae) and the bryophytes. He has named or described over 2,800 new species and subtribes, that is more than one tenth of the number of species in the Asteraceae. This figure is also about one quarter of the number of flowering plants, described by Linnaeus.

He has written over 650 publications, mainly on the Asteraceae, mosses (Bryophyta), Marchantiophyta, and the long-legged fly family Dolichopodidae (describing over 200 new species and 6 new genera, such as Harmstonia and Nanomyina) and many other subjects.

He received a B.S. from Ohio University in 1955, an M.S. from the University of Tennessee in 1957, a Ph.D. from Duke University in 1960.

After a short stint (from 1960 to 1962) as assistant professor at Wofford College (Spartanburg, South Carolina), he became Associate Curator of lower plants at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington (1960–1962). Later he was appointed Associate Curator (1964–1971) and finally Curator of Botany from 1971.

Together with collaborators, he investigated the taxonomy of several bryophytes, green algae (co-naming a new genus Struveopsis), vines of family Hippocrateaceae (nom. cons.) (now a synonym of the staff vine family Celastraceae).

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