| Joseph Dalton Hooker  Born: 30-Jun-1817
Birthplace: Halesworth, Suffolk, England
Died: 10-Dec-1911
Location of death: Sunningdale, Berkshire, England
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Botanist Nationality: England
Executive summary: Genera Plantarum English botanist and traveller, second son of the famous botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker, was born on the 30th of June 1817, at Halesworth, Suffolk. He was educated at Glasgow University, and almost immediately after taking his M.D. degree there in 1839 joined Sir James Ross's Antarctic expedition, receiving a commission as assistant-surgeon on the "Erebus." The botanical fruits of the three years he thus spent in the Southern Seas were the Flora Antarctica, Flora Novae Zelandiae and Flora Tasmanica, which he published on his return. His next expedition was to the northern frontiers of India (1847-51), and the expenses in this case also were partially defrayed by the government. The party had its full share of adventure. Hooker and his friend Dr. Campbell were detained in prison for some time by the raja of Sikkim, but nevertheless they were able to bring back important results, both geographical and botanical. Their survey of hitherto unexplored regions was published by the Calcutta Trigonometrical Survey Office, and their botanical observations formed the basis of elaborate works on the rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalaya and on the flora of India. Among other journeys undertaken by Hooker may be mentioned those to Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and the United States (1877), all yielding valuable scientific information. In the midst of all this travelling in foreign countries he quickly built up for himself a high scientific reputation at home. In 1855 he was appointed assistant director of Kew Gardens, and in 1865 he succeeded his father as full director, holding the post for twenty years. At the early age of thirty he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1873 he was chosen its president; he received three of its medals -- a Royal in 1854, the Copley in 1887 and the Darwin in 1892. He acted as president of tht British Association at its Norwich meeting of 1868, when his address was remarkable for its championship of Darwinian theories. Of Charles Darwin, indeed, he was an early friend and supporter: it was he who, with Charles Lyell, first induced Darwin to make his views public, and the author of The Origin of Species has recorded his indebtedness to Hooker's wide knowledge and balanced judgment. Sir Joseph Hooker is the author of numerous scientific papers and monographs, and his larger books include, in addition to those already mentioned, a standard Student's Flora of the British Isles and a monumental work, the Genera Plantarum, based on the collections at Kew, in which he had the assistance of George Bentham. On the publication of the last part of his Flora of British India in 1897 he was created G.C.S.I., of which order he had been made a knight commander twenty years before; and twenty years later, on attaining the age of ninety, he was awarded the Order of Merit.
Father: William Jackson Hooker (botanist)
University: University of Glasgow
Medical School: MD, University of Glasgow (1839)
Literary Club
Royal Society 1847, President 1873
Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow (1883)
Nature
Royal Medal 1854
Copley Medal 1887
Linnean Medal 1888 (with Sir Richard Owen)
Darwin Medal 1892
Knighthood
Order of Merit
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