Professor Thomas Maxwell Harris FRS (8 January 1903 – 1 May 1983)HARRIS, Thomas Maxwell
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 was an English paleobotanist.

Education and career

He was educated at Bootham School, York, Wyggeston School, Leicester, and University College, Nottingham, before continuing to complete his doctorate at Christ's College, Cambridge. Tom Harris was a Palaeobotanist on East Greenland Geological Survey, 1926-27. He became a professor at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

in 1934, working in the botany department with Theodora Lisle Prankerd and Terrance Ingold. He was Head of 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 ...

.J. B. Riding (interviewer)
Interview with Professor William G. (Bill) Chaloner
, at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, AASP Oral History Project,
The Palynological Society
', 16 December 2002. At Reading he supervised William Chaloner and Winifred Pennington, both later professors of botany. The Harris Garden, located on the University of Reading's Whiteknights Campus, was named after him. Harris was a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

. He served as president of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

from 1961 to 1964.

Awards

*1968 Linnean Medal

Partial bibliography

* ''The Fossil Flora of Scoresby Sound East Greenland'' (

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, 1931). * ''The British Rhaetic Flora'' (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 1938). * ''British Purbeck Charophyta'' (London, 1939). * ''Liassic and Rhaetic Plants collected in 1936-38 from East Greenland, etc.'' (Copenhagen, 1946). * ''Conifers of the Taxiodiaceæ from the Wealden Formation of Belgium, etc.'' (

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, 1953). * ''The Yorkshire Jurassic flora'' (five volumes, London, 1961–1979).

References

1903 births 1983 deaths British paleobotanists 20th-century English botanists People educated at Bootham School People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys Alumni of the University of Nottingham Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Reading Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Presidents of the Linnean Society of London {{UK-botanist-stub