Conn, Barry John   (1948 - )

Born in Dimboola, Vic, on 4 September, 1948;

Conn's first appointment as a botanist was with the Lae Herbarium in 1974. He then became herbarium curator and a lecturer at the Papua New Guinea Forestry College, Bulolo, PNG (1976-1979).

Barry was awarded a Ph.D. from Adelaide University in 1982 for work on Prostanthera.

He has been senior botanist at the National Herbarium of Victoria (1982-1987), and botanist (and principal research scientist) at the National Herbarium of New South Wales (1987-2015).

In 1994-1995, he was Australian Botanical Liaison Officer at Kew.

He has worked across a variety of flowering plant groups including the systematics of Malesian, Australasian and Pacific Droseraceae, Loganiaceae, Oxalidaceae, Urticaceae, Verbenaceae, Xyridaceae, and particularly Lamiaceae.

Barry is especially acknowledged for his focus on South-East Asian flora, given the loss of taxonomic capacity in recent years, and the limited number of taxonomists with a focus on that area based in Australia.

He has many contacts and colleagues across the whole region, and, significantly, has worked in areas in the Pacific and Malesia in which it is difficult to practice taxonomy and which are understudied.

Barry has worked across many other taxonomic research areas in his career. He helped initiate the State Flora of Victoria, at an early time when management had to be convinced of the need for such floras. He was also a notable early adopter of the development of consistent data standards, and with his own computer started databasing specimens, which was an early precursor to the Australasian Virtual Herbarium efforts.

Source: Extracted from: Dan Murphy (2019) 'Introduction to award ceremony for Burbidge Medallist Dr Barry Conn and his Lecture',
Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 181 (December 2019) p.4-5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Conn
Portrait Photo: 2000, M.Fagg, ANBG collection.

Collecting localities for 'Conn, B.J.' from AVH (2022)

Data from 11,305 specimens