Botany in New Zealand: Dr. V. J. Chapman

Abstract

DR. V. J. CHAPMAN, university demonstrator in botany, Cambridge, has been appointed professor of botany in Auckland University College, New Zealand. For one specially interested in all aspects of maritime ecology, including seaweeds, no place more suitable than Auckland could be selected. He is also interested in forest ecology, and a most promising field of investigation awaits him in the kauri forest reserves in the far north of the island. On graduating at Cambridge in 1932, Dr. Chapman was appointed Frank Smart student at Gonville and Caius College and began comprehensive researches on the salt marshes of the Norfolk coast, afterwards publishing several papers on their ecology. During 1935-36 he held a Henry fellowship at Harvard University and continued his investigations on salt marshes in a different environment. While in America he spent some time on the Pacific coast, which further stimulated his interest in seaweeds. On returning to England he held an assistant lectureship in the University of Manchester but soon migrated back to Cambridge on election to a fellowship at his College and appointment to a demonstratorship. During 1939 he organized and led the Cambridge University botanical expedition to Jamaica, where he studied the coastal mangrove formations. In 1942 he conducted a survey of the larger seaweeds around the British coasts for the Ministry of Supply, some of which were afterwards exploited for war purposes. Early in 1945 he was appointed botanical specialist in operational research at the headquarters of South-East Asia Command, from which he has recently returned. New Zealand, which is a botanist's paradise, is fortunate in securing the services of such an enthusiastic worker in fields of research particularly appropriate to the Dominion, and Dr. Chapman is fortunate in his opportunity.