Raven, Peter H.

Raven, Peter H. (Hamilton)

(1936–  ) botanist; born in Shanghai. Son of an American businessman temporarily in China, he grew up in the U.S.A. He was a National Science fellow at the British Museum of Natural History (1960–61), and a taxonomist and curator at the Rancho Santa Ana Botantical Garden (1961–62) before joining Stanford (1962–71). He became Engelmann Professor of botany at Washington University, St. Louis, and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden (1971). An authority on plant taxonomy, especially of the fuschia family, he also made major contributions to the ethnobotany of Mayan Mexico, coevolution of both plants and animals, and population ecology. He was an outspoken advocate of conservation of rainforests. He received a MacArthur Fellowship (1985) for his life's work.