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<p class=""><span style lang="EN-US">Dear
Colleagues,</span></p>
<p class=""><span style lang="EN-US">On behalf of TDWG we are very
sorry to inform you that Richard John Pankhurst passed away on Tuesday 26 March
after fighting oesophageal cancer for many years. </span></p>
<p class=""><span style lang="EN-US">He was a very important contributer and friend of TDWG, as can be judged from his short CV from the BioCISE directory: <br></span></p><p class=""><span style lang="EN-US">Dr Richard Pankhurst
began his career in computing in the computer section at CERN, Geneva in 1963,
and moving back to Cambridge to work on Computer-Aided Design in 1966. In 1971
he moved to the Botany School, Cambridge to begin work on his PANKEY programs
for identification and key construction. This was continued at the Botany
department of the Natural History Museum from 1974 until 1991, where he was for
many years curator of the British herbarium, and also worked on the Flora
Meso-Americana. "Biological Identification", 1978, was the first
textbook on computer methods in identification. A new version of this book was
published by C.U.P in 1991. Also published in that year was the Flora of the
Outer Hebrides. With over 50 publications of refereed papers and books in the
fields of taxonomic computing he has made major contributions to these fields.
Dr. Pankhurst has been very active recently in programming and managing
botanical databases (Flora Europaea, BSBI database and PANDORA) and systems
with images. He was appointed Principal Scientific Officer at the RGB Edinburgh
in 1991. Dr. Pankhurst served on various committees of British and
international organizations, among others. Botanical Society of the British
Isles, Committee for Scotland and Database Committee. Botanical Society of
Scotland, Council. Taxonomic Databases Working Group, convener of Descriptors
Group. International Organisation for Plant Information, co-convener of
Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee. Dr. Pankhurst was the head
of the Department of Taxonomic Computing at RGBE. </span></p><p class=""></p><p class="">
</p><p class="" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After his official retirement, he compiled a
large database of the Rose family. His work on recording the wild flowers of
the Outer Hebrides took him frequently to these remote islands on behalf of the
Botanical Society of the British Isles. His interest in Taraxacum (dandelions)
was acknowledged when a species found only on St. Kilda was named <i>Taraxacum
pankhurstianum</i>. </span></p>
<p></p>
<p class=""><span style lang="EN-US">In Richard, not only a very important scientist was lost to our community, but also a very pleasant collaborator and friend .</span></p><p class=""></p><p class=""><a href="mailto:patricia.mergen@africamuseum.be"><span style><span style="color:blue" lang="NL-BE"></span></span><span style></span></a><span style><span style lang="NL-BE"></span></span>
</p><p class=""></p><p class=""><a name="_MailAutoSig"><span style><br></span></a></p><p class=""><a name="_MailAutoSig"><span style>Dr. Patricia Mergen (General Secretary of TDWG, on behalf of the Executive Committee) <br>
</span></a></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style>Head of Biodiversity Information
and Cybertaxonomy</span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style>Royal Museum for Central Africa </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style>Leuvensesteenweg 13</span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style lang="NL-BE">B-3080
Tervuren </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style lang="NL-BE">Belgium </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style><span style lang="NL-BE">+ 32 2 769
5 <b>626</b></span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style></span><a href="mailto:patricia.mergen@africamuseum.be"><span style><span style="color:blue" lang="NL-BE">patricia.mergen@africamuseum.be</span></span><span style></span></a><span style><span style lang="NL-BE"></span></span></p>
<br><span style lang="EN-US"></span><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"></span><p></p>
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