Kancheepuram (Kanchi) Natarajan Gandhi (born January 28, 1948, in India) is Senior Nomenclature Registrar and Bibliographer at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the Department of

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

in the

Harvard University Herbaria The Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum are institutions located on the grounds of Harvard University at 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Botanical Museum is one of three which comprise the Harvard Museum of Natura ...

& Libraries (HUH and HUL). He manages a botanical classification project to identify and classify all plants in the Western world (the New World) through his role at Harvard, where Harvard's newly adopted “open-access digitization policy” assigns to the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

most of the images of plants he and others have classified and preserved. He is famous for his long-held role as part of the collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The

, and the Australian National Herbarium in developing the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

, a database of the names and associated bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns, and lycophytes.

Biography

Before his recruitment by Harvard University in the 1990s, he was a research associate at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

(Jan 1990 – Jul 1995), Before that, he taught botany at

Calicut University The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in no ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. Gandhi frequently travels to India to lecture on vascular plant systematics, plant nomenclature,

plant morphology Phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants.Raven, P. H., R. F. Evert, & S. E. Eichhorn. ''Biology of Plants'', 7th ed., page 9. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2005). . This is usually considered distinct from pl ...

plant geography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...

, and

plant taxonomy Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

, especially Asteraceae and Poaceae, as he did in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, for reunions with his former students in India, who are or are not doing

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, and to transfer his expertise to botanists in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. His current projects include: * Indexing Vascular Plant Names of the New World; * Updating Database Files on Authors, Collectors & Publications; * Analyzing Nomenclatural Problems for the Old and New Worlds; * Bibliography of Vascular Plant Names *

International Plant Name Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

(HUH) lookup tables * Flora of North America project.

Education

* PhD, Range Science/Botany,

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, 1984 – 1989. * MS, Biology,

University of Louisiana at Monroe The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it becam ...

, 1982 – 1984.

Awards

* 2017
Government of India invited Dr. Gandhi to lecture for three weeks at several universities in India.
* 2017 - In March 2017, during a three-week skill-building tour of India designed to teach and transfer Greek and Latin botanical classification skills to Indian botanists, Dr. Gandhi received a Memento at

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. * 2017
Lectured on "Plants, Society & Law"
on February 24, 2017, at

Nalanda University Nālandā University (informally NU; or ISO: Nālandā Vishwavidyalaya) is a central research university located in the ancient city of Rajgir in the state of Bihar, India. Designated as an Institute of National Importance (INI) and excelle ...

. * 2010
"Distinguished Service Award"
from the

American Society of Plant Taxonomists The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) is a botany, botanical organization formed in 1935 to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy, to include those areas and fields of study that contribut ...

Professional activities

* Editor,

* Collaborator, Index Nominum Genericorum (Plantarum) * Member, Committee for the Spermatophyta, International Association for Plant Taxonomy * Associate editor, journal Rhodora * Nomenclature Consultant, journal Novon * Councillor, New England Botanical Club, Inc.Past Officers of the New England Botanical Club. Accessed 12/12/2017
/ref> * Associate Nomenclature Editor, Taxon, International Journal of Plant Taxonomy, Phylogeny and Evolution * Liaison with th

Nomenclature Editor
for ''Systematic Botany'', the quarterly international scientific journal for the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT)

Selected publications

* Wiersema, J., Gandhi, K. (385–388) "Proposals to amend Articles 32.2, 23.5, and 24.2 to clarify the treatment of transcribed Greek terminations of epithets". ''Taxon'' (2016). * McNeill, J., Barrie, F., Gandhi, K., Hollowell, V., Redhead, S., Söderström, L., Zarucchi, J. "Report of the special committee on publications using a largely mechanical method of selection of types (Art. 10.5(b)) (especially under the American code)". ''Taxon'' (2016). * McNeill, J., Barrie, F., Gandhi, K., Hollowell, V., Redhead, S., Söderström, L., Zarucchi, J. "(391–396) proposals to amend the provisions of the code on selection of types of generic names using a largely mechanical method". ''Taxon'' (2016) * Flagg, R., Smith, G., Garland, M., Gandhi, K. "(2481) proposal to conserve the name ''Amaryllis atamasco'' (''Zephyranthes atamasco'') with that spelling (Amaryllidaceae)". ''Taxon'' (2016). * Gandhi, K. "Dan Henry Nicolson (1933-2016): A personal remembrance". ''Taxon'' (2016). * Gandhi, K
"Staghorn Sumac: ''Rhus typhina'' or ''R. hirta'' (Anacardiaceae)"
https://dx.doi.org/10.3119/15-37, Rhodora vol. 118, issue 974 (2016) pp. 232–234 Published by New England Botanical Club. * Barkworth, M., Cialdella, A., Gandhi, K
"''Piptochaetium fuscum ''(Nees ex Steud.), a new combination replacing ''Piptochaetium setosum'' (Trin.) Arechav"
''PhytoKeys'', vol. 35 (2014) pp. 17–22. * Tucker, G., Gandhi, K
"Nomenclatural Notes on Neotropical ''Cyperus'' (Cyperaceae)"
''Harvard Papers in Botany'', vol. 18, issue 2 (2013) pp. 149–154 Published by Harvard University Herbaria. * Gandhi, K. N., Young, S. M. & Somers, P. 2003. "A Reassessment of the Taxonomy of ''Liatris borealis'' Nutt. ex J. McNab and ''Lacinaria scariosa'' var. ''novae-angliae'' Lunell (Asteraceae)". ''Taxon'' 52(2): 313-318. * Hatch, S. L., Gandhi, K. N. & Brown, L. E. 1990. "Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Texas". ''Texas Agricultural Communication, Misc. Pub.'' 1655. 157 pages. * C. J. Saldanha & Nicolson, D. H. (eds.). 1976. "Flora of Hassan District,

Karnataka, India Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

". With contributions by ... K. N. Gandhi ... Published for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., by Amerind Publishing Co., Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (India). 915 pages. * Gandhi, K. N., Wiersema, J. H. & Soreng, R. J. 2001. "Proposal to conserve the name ''Bouteloua gracilis'' (Kunth) Griffiths against ''B. gracilis'' Vasey (Poaceae)". ''Taxon'' 50: 573-575. * Gandhi, K. N. 1999. "Nomenclatural novelties for the Western Hemisphere Plants-II". ''Harvard Pap. Bot.'' 4(1): 295-299. * Gandhi, K. N. & Fryxell, P. A. 1990. "Nomenclatural note on ''Eupatorium fistulosum'' (Asteraceae)". ''Sida'' 14: 129-131. * Gandhi, K. N & Kartesz, J. T. 1993. "Five miscellaneous proposals to amend the Code". ''Taxon'' 42: 180-182.

Personal life

Gandhi is married, living west of Boston, and his daughter is a

medical student A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

. He is a lifelong

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

and a member of the Boston Vegetarian Society.

References

External links

BHL profile for Kanchi N. Gandhi

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Harvard University Herbaria

Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries profile for Kanchi Natarajan Gandhi

Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries contact page for Kanchi Natarajan Gandhi
*
Mendeley.com profile for Kanchi Natarajan Gandhi of the Harvard University Herbaria
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Kanchi Harvard University faculty 21st-century American botanists American people of Indian descent 1948 births Living people