Jack Hawkes (botanist) explained

John Gregory Hawkes OBE FLS (27 June 1915 in Bristol – 6 September 2007 in Reading) was a British botanist, Mason Professor of Botany at the University of Birmingham.^{[1] [2]}

He was a student at Cambridge University Botany School where obtained his Ph.D. (1941) and Sc.D. (1957).^[3]

He specialised in studying the taxonomy of wild potato species (Solanum sect. Petota), identified sources of resistance to the potato cyst nematode and played a role in establishing programs to maintain agricultural biodiversity.^{[4] [5]}

He was awarded the OBE in the 1994 Birthday Honours. In 1985 he was awarded the Linnean Medal for Botany by the Linnean Society.^[3]

He treated much of the Solanaceae for Flora Europaea, started the Solanaceae Newsletter and organised the first Symposium on the Solanaceae.^[3]

At Birmingham he started the M.Sc. course in the Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources, which trained international students.^[3]

Working with Birmingham Natural History Society and Dorothy Cadbury he produced "A computer - mapped flora and study of the county of Warwickshire" (1971). This was an innovative use of computers at the time using Punched tape storage, which led to problems later on when the computer department updated their system and the old tapes had to be read slowly so as not to damage them.^[6]

In 1977, Argentinian botanist Armando Theodoro Hunziker named a genus of plants from South America, Hawkesiophyton(belonging to the family Solanaceae) after Hawkes.^[7]

Selected publications

• A computer-mapped flora, a study of the County of Warwickshire. Cadbury, D. A., Hawkes, J. G., Readett, R. C. (1971). Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society (Birmingham, England), Academic Press.
• A bibliography of plant genetic resources. Hawkes, J. G., Williams, John Trevor, Hanson, Jean (1976). Rome: International Board for Plant Genetic Resources.
• The Biology and taxonomy of the Solanaceae. Hawkes, J. G., Lester, R. N., Skelding, A. D. (1979). Linnean Society of London, Academic Press.
• The potato: evolution, biodiversity and genetic resources. Hawkes, J. G. (1990). London: Belhaven.

References

• 10.1007/s10722-007-9291-9. John G. Hawkes (1915–2007). Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 54. 8. 1635. 2007. Pistrick . K. . Hammer . K. . free.
• 10.1007/s10722-005-8253-3. Richard N. Lester. Book Review - Hunting the Wild Potato in the South American Andes: Memories of the British Empire Potato Collecting Expedition to South America 1938–1939. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 2005. 52. 483–488.
• 'HAWKES, Prof. John Gregory', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008 accessed 30 May 2011

External links

• Professor Jack Hawkes Obituary by Brian Ford-Lloyd in the Independent, 17 October 2007.

Notes and References

1. Book: Crop Wild Relative Conservation and Use. https://books.google.com/books?id=MpWeaVxp9gsC&pg=PR18. 2008. CABI. 978-1-84593-307-4. 18–20. Jack Hawkes: Plant Collector, Researcher, Mentor and Visionary.
2. Book: Lawrence Goldman. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008. https://books.google.com/books?id=nbGcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA500. 7 March 2013. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-967154-0. 499–500. Hawkes, John Gregory.
3. January 1985. Linnean Medal for Botany. The Linnean. 1. 4. 26–28.
4. Web site: Professor Jack Hawkes . The Independent . 2007-10-18 . 2014-04-06.
5. Web site: Professor Jack Hawkes . The Daily Telegraph . 2007-09-21 . 2014-04-06.
6. Web site: Jackson. Mike. 5 February 2012. Jack Hawkes – a plant genetic resources pioneer. Mike Jackson.
7. Web site: Hawkesiophyton Hunz. Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 26 May 2021 . en.