Chris Humphries (1947-2009): botanist, cladist and biogeographer: an appreciation.

Abstract

Chris Humphries, botanist and biogeographer, founding Fellow, past-President and Fellow honoris causa of the Willi Hennig Society, died on Friday 31 July 2009, at the age of 62 (Fig. 1). First and foremost, Chris was a botanist specialising in the family Asteraceae (daisies), but early in his career he took an interest in a wide variety of subjects in systematic biology, botanical art and its relation to 19th century scientific exploration, and conservation biology. He was an enthusiastic lecturer, held in high esteem by his students. His infectious enthusiasm for systematic biology meant that he was sought out by many. He would talk to everyone, from school children to aged professors, from museum security guards to Ministers of State. Chris did much to bring the Willi Hennig Society and its journal, Cladistics, into being. An influential polymath and remarkable character, Chris s passing is not only mourned by numerous friends and colleagues, but can also be seen as marking the end of the halfcentury that established cladistics as the dominant method in systematics.