Chinnock Robert James (Bob)   (1943 - )

Bob Chinnock was born on 3 July 1943 in Wellington, NZ, and grew up in New Zealand.

He had an interest in plants from an early age and as a teenager grew cacti and succulents.

He became interested in plant taxonomy as an undergraduate at Victoria University of Wellington and gained his M.Sc. (Hons) degree in 1971 with a taxonomic study of the succulent genus Disphyma (Aizoaceac), which occurs in southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

He moved to Australia in 1972 to join the staff of the State Herbarium of South Australia in Adelaide as a botanist.

He began his study of Eremophila in 1975, gaining a Ph.D. from the Flinders University of South Australia in 1982 for work on this genus and related ones.

Since then, Bob has expanded this research to cover the family Myoporaceae and has had the opportunity to study most species in the field. In addition to his taxonomic interest in Eremophila and its allies, he has also had a deep interest in seedling development, rare and endangered species, fire ecology, breeding systems, seed dispersal mechanisms and in the introduction of new species into cultivation.

In addition to his work on Eremophila, Bob has also published a book on New Zealand ferns and fern allies and has produced taxonomic revisions, flora treatments, descriptions of new species and popular accounts on a variety of plant groups, including ferns and fern allies and the plant families Aizoaceae and Chenopodiaceae.

He retired in 2008 but continued to work at the State Herbarium in an honorary capacity.

Source: Extracted from: back dust-jacket of 'Eremophila and allied genera, a Monograph of the Myoporaceae' by R.J.Chinnock, (2007) Rosenberg Pub
Portrait Photo: unknown.

Collecting localities for 'Chinnock, R.J.' from AVH (2022)

Data from 13,299 specimens