John Griffith Vaughan

John Griffith Vaughan (5 May 1926 – 17 May 2005) was a Welsh food scientist. He was an expert in seed science, whose work linked the fields of botany and nutrition.

During nearly 40 years at the University of London, Vaughan pioneered new techniques for the study of seed proteins, became the leading expert on the structure and composition of oilseeds such as oilseed rape, and was widely consulted by industry. His expertise in identifying plant parts in animal and human foods was much sought after by flour millers and other food processors.

Born into modest circumstances in the industrial town of Merthyr Tydfil, Vaughan came to love plants as a boy, while walking in the Brecon Beacons. After grammar school, he entered the Victoria University of Manchester at the age of 17, to take a degree in botany. His first post was at a schoolteacher at Hele's School, Plympton, during which he published his first paper, and resolved on a career in research. After completing a Ph.D. thesis and lecturing, both at the then Chelsea Polytechnic, in 1958 Vaughan moved to Queen Elizabeth College, a college of the University of London situated in a leafy corner of Kensington. Initially in the College’s Department of Biology, he later moved to the Food Science department. The College merged with King's College London, in 1985, and in 1986 Vaughan was appointed as Professor of Food Microscopy.

During the 1970s and 1980s, when botany was increasingly displaced by more fashionable subjects, Vaughan did much to sustain research and teaching of plant science in London University, including the use of plant anatomy for identifying ancient seed remains at the Institute of Archaeology. He was an excellent teacher, meticulous and lucid, and kindly, and much in demand as an examiner of doctoral theses.

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