Norman Willison Simmonds

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FIB FLS (5 or 15 December 1922 – 4 January 2002) was a British botanist. He was a world authority on the cultivation of bananas. He was the first non-American to be awarded the Bronx-based

Society for Economic Botany The Society for Ethnobotany (formerly Society for Economic Botany) is an international learned society covering the fields of ethnobotany and economic botany. It was established in 1959. In 2022 the Society voted to change its name from the Socie ...

's Distinguished Economic Botanist Award.

Early life and education

He was born in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

on 5 or 15 December 1922 the son of a civil servant. He was educated at

Whitgift School Whitgift School is an independent day school with limited boarding in South Croydon, London. Along with Trinity School of John Whitgift and Old Palace School it is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a charitable trust. The school was prev ...

from 1934 to 1940. He won a scholarship to study natural sciences at the

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

, and then in 1943 won a further scholarship to study at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture on the island of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. In 1945, the college invited him to begin lecturing in botany. He received an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1948.

Career

Simmonds was later Senior Cytogeneticist at the Banana Research Section on the island. During this time, he collected banana samples in East Africa in 1948 and further samples in Asia and Malaysia in 1954/5. From 1959 to 1965 he was the head of the Potato Genetics Department of the

John Innes Institute The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity (No 223852) grant-aided by the Biotechnology and B ...

. In 1965 he became Director of the Scottish Plant Breeding Station which was then in Pentlandfield, a suburb of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Awards and honours

The University of Cambridge awarded him with a doctorate (DSc) in 1966. On March 2, 1970, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were Sir David Lowe, Sir Stephen John Watson, Hugh Paterson Donald and Noel Farnie Robertson. In 1975, he was made an Honorary Professor of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Death

He died in Edinburgh on 4 January 2002.

Publications

Books

*''Taxonomy and Origins of the Cultivated Banana'' (1955) *''Bananas'' (1959, 1966, and with Robert Stover in 1987) *''Variability in Crop Plants'' (1962) *'' Evolution of Bananas'' (1962) *''Evolution of Crop Plants'' (1976, ed. and author) *''Principles of Crop Improvement'' (1979); 2nd edition with coauthor J. Smartt (1999) *''Plant Breeding: The State of the Art'' (1983) *''Early Scottish Angling Literature'' (1997)

Articles

* *

AGRIS AGRIS is the Food and Agriculture Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) International System for Agricultural Science and Technology, a global public domain database with structured bibliographical records on ...

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MY8605599
* CABI ISCbr>19952307374
.

References

External links

* * 1922 births 2002 deaths Alumni of the University of Cambridge Bananas Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Linnean Society of London British phytopathologists Economic botanists {{UK-botanist-stub