Richard Pankhurst (botanist)

Richard John Pankhurst (1940 –2013) was a British computer scientist, botanist and academic. From 1963 to 1966 he worked at CERN, then from 1966 to 1974 on computer-aided design at Cambridge University, and from 1974 to 1991 at the Natural History Museum as curator of the British herbarium. In 1991, he became a Principal Scientific Officer at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

He published over fifty peer reviewed papers and sat on several committees:


 * Botanical Society of the British Isles: Committee for Scotland; Database Committee
 * Botanical Society of Scotland: Council
 * Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG): Descriptors Group (as convenor)
 * International Organisation for Plant Information: Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee (co-convener)

His book Biological Identification (1978) has been described as " the first textbook on computer methods in identification".

Pankhurst died in 2013, a year after the species Taraxacum pankhurstianum, endemic to St. Kilda, was named in his honour, for his suggestion that the seed from which it was grown at Edinburgh be collected.