Edward Clive Dickinson (born 6 March 1938) is a British

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

specialising in the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n birds.

Biography

Edward Dickinson was born in 1938, in

Paget Parish Paget Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named for William Paget, 4th Baron Paget de Beaudesert (1572–1629). The parish is located in the central south of the island chain, immediately south of Hamilton Harbor on the ...

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, the son of Lionel Gilbert Dickinson and Eileen Dickinson née Barlow. He was educated at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

. After leaving school he worked from 1962 as a product manager for Pronesiam Inc. in Bangkok. In 1965 he married Dorothy Sopper, with whom he has two children. From 1968 to 1970, he was the editor of the ''National Historical Bulletin'' of the

Siam Society The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage () was established in 1904 with a mission to promote knowledge of the culture, history, arts, and natural sciences of Thailand as well as those of neighbouring countries. The premises of the Society in Bangko ...

. In 1971, Dickinson moved to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

, where he worked until 1973 as a project manager. From 1973 to 1975, he worked for Filipro in Manila. In 1975, Dickinson had his first ornithological book published, ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia'', coauthored with Ben F. King. In 1991, his ''The Birds of the Philippines: An Annotated Checklist'' was published. It was followed by various manuals and checklists, and finally a professional ornithological position at

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center () is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Although its current name and organization are relatively ...

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, where he worked as a research associate as of 2012. Dickinson founded the publishing house Aves Press Limited, and is a member of the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. Dickinson has built on his lifelong passion for ornithology to make numerous contributions to taxonomy. Together with

René Dekker René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

he wrote ''Systematic Notes on Asian Birds'', a series of articles devoted to the taxonomic revision of the Asian avifauna. Since 2011 he has been the editor of ''Zoological Bibliography'', an

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

journal for taxonomy. In 1997, Dickinson took on editorship of the Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World, contributing to the publication of the 3rd Edition in 2003 and the 4th in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Edward C. English ornithologists Living people 1938 births British taxonomists People from Paget Parish