Peter Goldblatt (born 1943) is a South African
botanist, working principally in the United States.
Life
Goldblatt was born in
Johannesburg, South Africa on October 8, 1943. His undergraduate studies (B.Sc.) were undertaken at the
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesberg (1965–1966), from where he went on to graduate studies at the
University of Cape Town, where he received his doctorate in 1970. He held a position as lecturer in botany at Witwatersrand (1967) and then Cape Town (1968–1971) before emigrating to the United States in 1972. In the US he took up a position as a researcher at the
Missouri Botanical Gardens, in
St. Louis, where he has remained since, holding the position of Senior Curator since 1990. He returned briefly to South Africa in 2006 as a researcher at the
Compton Herbarium, South African National Biodiversity Institute, in Cape Town. He has also held appointments at the
University of Missouri, as well as the
University of Portland,
Oregon (2000–2004). He obtained US citizenship in 1978.[1][2][3]
Work
Peter Goldblatt started his career as a plant collector in 1962, and worked extensively in
Cape Province, but also in other regions of Africa, Madagascar, the United States, Greece, Italy, Israel, Turkey and Iran, having collected thousands of specimens. His interests lie in systematic
taxonomy.[4] One of his main research interests has been the cytology and taxonomy of the
Iridaceae of Africa.[1][2][3] A member of several botanical societies, he was also General Secretary (1982–1985) of the Association for the Taxonomic Study of Tropical African Flora.[5][6]
Manning, J.C.; Forest, F.; Devey, D.S.;
Fay, M.F.;
Goldblatt, P. (February 2009). "A molecular phylogeny and a revised classification of Ornithogaloideae (Hyacinthaceae) based on an analysis of four placid DNA regions". Taxon. 58 (1): 77–107.
doi:
10.1002/tax.581011.
JSTOR27756826.
Legacy
A number of taxa have been named in his honour, including;