Born in 1807, the son of a farmer at Blackhouse, near Peterhead, William Brand was initially educated in parish schools before being apprenticed to Writers (solicitors) in Peterhead then in Edinburgh where he entered legal classes at the University. Having completed his legal education he became a Writer to the Signet in 1834 and a partner in the Edinburgh firm of Scott, Findlay and Balderston. In 1846 he was elected Secretary to the Union Bank of Scotland, a position he held until his death. In 1863 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Whilst completing his medical degree at Edinburgh University, Brand developed a strong interest in botany, accompanying Professor Robert Graham (Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Professor of Botany at Edinburgh University) on collecting excursions throughout Scotland during 1830 and 1831. In 1836, when meetings were being held to discuss the creation of a new Botanical Society, Brand was there. He attended the inaugural meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh on the 8th February 1836 making him a founding member and also logical choice for its first Treasurer. He developed ideas for a number of Society publications, devised methods for arranging and cataloguing the Society’s herbarium and collected a significant herbarium collection himself, discovering several new plants including <i>Astragalus alpinus</i> in the process.
He was also a member of the Botanical Society Club, an offshoot of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh initially comprising its original members, becoming its Secretary. At the last Club meeting he attended, in June 1869, he complained of feeling ill. After a couple of months he recovered enough to visit relatives in Peterhead, but became ill again on his return home, dying on October 15th 1869. He left behind a widow, a son and two daughters.
DW and LP
Professor Irene Manton FRS, P-PLS, FRMS, BA, PhD, ScD. Hon. DSc.
Attended Girton College, Cambridge in 1923, which she left as it was unwelcoming to women. Moved on to study at Gustaf Otto Rosenberg in Stockholm. Became a lecturer at teh University of Manchester in 1928. Received her PhD in 1930, with her thesis on Cruciferae.
Manton spent most of her career at the University of Leeds, where she was a Professor of Botany from 1946 until she became Professor Emeritus in 1969. Her work focused on ferns and algae, specifically hybridisation, polyploidy, and apomixis. She also examined chromosomes and evolution.
Irene wrote more that 170 scientific papers, one book (Problems of cytology and evolution in pteridophyta, 1950) and many general articles.
She taught Professor Mary Gibby as an undergraduate at the University of Leeds.
As a woman she set several records including being the first female professor and first female head of a department at Leeds University. She was the first (and so far only) woman president of The Linnean Society of London (1973-1976). Also she and her sister Sidnie are the only sisters as of 2004 to be elected Fellows of the Royal Society.
In 1990, The Linnean Society established the Irene Manton Prize. It was created for best doctoral thesis in botany.
From the Linnean Society:
"Irene was a ‘woman of her time’. Her life (1904–1988) spanned the better part of the
twentieth century. This period was momentous for many reasons. Firstly, there was a major
change in the role of women within the professions in general, and science in particular.
Secondly, with the advent of electron microscopy, a completely new subject was born and
Irene was present at its birth. Thirdly, science was in the process of changing from being a
discipline pursued by individuals to becoming an industry. Irene was one of a select group
of women pioneers who made their way in what had hitherto been a man’s world.
In compiling this biography, I have not changed my opinion that Irene Manton was an
exceptional woman but I have been surprised at the breadth of her intellect and the depth of
her humanity. No period of her life is without interest and I hope that the story that follows
will give insights into her as a person, into the work that she carried out, and into how and
why she managed to make the transition from being a ‘classical’ fern cytologist to being a
world leader in a new and technically-sophisticated branch of biology."
London's oldest botanic garden. Established in 1673, by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, Chelsea Physic Garden is home to over 4,500 medicinal, edible and useful plants.
Mission:
To demonstrate the medicinal, economic, cultural and environmental importance of plants to the survival and well-being of humankind.
The University of Leeds was founded in 1904 as a public research university in Leeds, England.
Origins date back to Leeds School of Medicine (est. 1831) and the Yorkshire College of Science (est. 1874). University of Leeds was established with the merging of these two schools and the granting of a royal charter by King Edward VII.
An Italian botanist. He was a specialist on the ecology and phytogeography of tropical Africa, and also worked in plant taxonomy and pteridology.
In 1935, he graduated with a degree in Natural History from University of Florence.
From 1935 to 1958, was an assistant at the Institute of Botany in the University of Florence.
From 1958 to 1959 became a professor of botany at the University of Sassari in Sardinia.
From 1959, Rodolfo was a professor at the Institute of Botany in the University of Genoa and director of the Botanical Garden.
Pichi was a member of the Linnaean Society of London, the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Ferns, he received the Hailé Selassié prize for his work in Ethiopia. He was also made a professor emeritus by the University of Perugia, Italy.
A public university in Sassari, Italy
Founded in 1321, the University of Florence is now one of Italy’s largest institutions for research and higher education.
Worked at the The Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
South Africa's oldest university, established in 1918.