The Amazon and Its People in Black and White

Author Biography

Professor Sir Ghillean Prance was educated at University of Oxford, BA in Botany (1960) M.A., D.Phil. (1963); He worked for The New York Botanical Garden from 1963 to 1988 as , B A Krukoff Curator of Amazonian Botany, Director and Vice-President of Research (1976-1982), Senior Vice President for Science (1982-1988). During that time he made 39 expeditions to Amazonia, collected over 30,000 plant specimens including 350 new species. He also published many ethnobotanical papers about the uses of plants by the indigenous peoples. He was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1988 -1999; and then McBryde Professor, National Tropical Botanical Garden Hawaii 2001-02. He is a Visiting Professor at Reading University; author of 26 books and more than 600 scientific and general papers in taxonomy, ethnobotany, economic botany, conservation and ecology. His honours include 15 honorary doctorates; the International COSMOS Prize 1993; Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS); Knight Bachelor, 1995; Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) of Royal Horticultural Society, 1999; David Fairchild Medal for plant exploration, 2000; Allerton Award in 2005; Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross Brazil, 2000; Order of the Rising Sun from Japan, 2012.