John Walter Thomson

John Walter Thomson Jr. (1913–2009) was a Scottish-born American botanist and lichenologist, sometimes referred to as the "Dean of North American Lichens".[3]

John Walter Thomson
BornJuly 9, 1913
Cockenzie, Scotland
DiedFebruary 20, 2009 (2009-02-21) (aged 95)
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Alma materColumbia University
University of Wisconsin
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin
ThesisRelic Prairie Areas in Central Wisconsin[1]
Doctoral advisorNorman C. Fassett
Doctoral studentsBill Culberson[2]
Mason Hale
Author abbrev. (botany)J.W.Thomson

Biography

When he was eight years old, Thomson moved with his family to the U.S.A.[2] In 1935 he graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree, majoring in botany and zoology. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW Madison) he graduated in botany with a master's degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1939. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked as a naturalist at Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History and taught at Brooklyn College until 1942.[4] During WW II, he taught topics in military aviation and meteorology from 1942 to 1944 for the U.S. Army Air Corps at Superior State Teachers College (now named the University of Wisconsin–Superior).[5] In 1944 he became a faculty member of the department of botany at University of Wisconsin–Madison, retiring there in 1984 as professor emeritus. In retirement, he continued to work almost daily at the Madison campus until he was about 88 years old.[4]

Thomson taught for many summers at the University of Minnesota's Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories campus,[6] which is located on Lake Itasca.[7] He collected lichens not only in the Arctic and in Wisconsin, but also in a number of other U.S. states, including "California, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington".[2] He was the author or coauthor of over 100 scientific articles. He accumulated an extremely valuable herbarium of lichens, which gave the Wisconsin State Herbarium at UW Madison perhaps the world's best lichen collection of North American and Arctic material.[2][8]

From the mid 1950s onward he focused on the American boreal and arctic lichens, starting with the Hudson Bay region and the Canadian Eastern Arctic, then extending his studies westward across the continent. Thomson was the first person to systematically collect, identify, and map the lichen flora of the tundra regions of northern Canada and Alaska. He made 14 expeditions to the American Arctic, collecting lichens across the vast expanse of terrain from Labrador to the Arctic islands to the Bering Straits. By 1978 Thomson estimated he had identified 90,000 lichen specimens from the North American tundra using chemical tests and thin-layer chromatography.[4]

In 1937 in Madison, Wisconsin, Thomson married the botanist and conservationist Olive Sherman.[9][5] Upon his death he was survived by his widow, three sons, Dennis, Norman, and Roderic, a daughter, Elizabeth, and seven grandchildren.[3] Another son, Douglas E. Thomson, M.D., died in 1978 at age 34.[2][10] As a memorial to Douglas their dead son, John and Olive Thomson gave money to The Nature Conservancy for land acquisition, leading to the establishment of the Thomson Memorial Prairie,[11] which consists of "323 acres of remnant dry prairie".[9] Dennis Thomson and his wife Joan Schurch Thomson donated land to the nonprofit conservation organization The Prairie Enthusiasts, which created the 193-acre preserve named Schurch-Thomson Prairie.[12]

Awards and honors
  • 1958–1959 — President of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society
  • 1985 — Henry Allan Gleason Award of the New York Botanical Garden
  • 1985 — Gulf Oil Conservation Award jointly given to John and Olive Thomson for their environmental activity
  • 1992 — Acharius Medal of the International Association for Lichenology[13]
  • 1998 — Festschrift held in honor of Thomson's 85th birthday with published volume Lichenographia Thomsoniana (1998)[14]
  • 2010 — John Thomson Research Award established by the Botanical Club of Wisconsin[15]

Selected publications

Articles
  • Thomson, John W. (1942). "The Lichen Genus Cladonia in Wisconsin". The American Midland Naturalist. 27 (3): 696–709. doi:10.2307/2420920. JSTOR 2420920.
  • Thomson, John W. (1955). "Lichens of Arctic America. II. Additions to Records of Lichen Distribution in the Canadian Eastern Arctic". The Bryologist. 58 (3): 246–259. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(1955)58[246:LOAAIA]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3239914.
  • Thomson, John W. (1960). "Agrestic cyphellata, a New Genus and Species of Lichen in the Usneaceae". The Bryologist. 63 (4): 246–250. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(1960)63[246:ACANGA]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3240565.
  • Thomson, John W. (1967). "The Lichen Genus Baeomyces in North America North of Mexico". The Bryologist. 70 (3): 285–298. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(1967)70[285:TLGBIN]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3241088.
  • Thomson, J. W.; Iltis, H. H. (1968). "A Fog-Induced Lichen Community in the Coastal Desert of Southern Peru". The Bryologist. 71 (1): 31–34. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(1968)71[31:AFLCIT]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3240649.
  • Barrett, Paul E.; Thomson, John W. (1975). "Lichens from a High Arctic Coastal Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T.". The Bryologist. 78 (2): 160–167. doi:10.2307/3242046. JSTOR 3242046.
  • Thomson, J. W.; Bird, C. D. (1978). "The lichen genus Dactylina in North America". Canadian Journal of Botany. 56 (14): 1602–1624. doi:10.1139/b78-190.
  • Moser, Thomas J.; Nash, Thomas H.; Thomson, John W. (1979). "Lichens of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, with Emphasis on the Impact of Caribou Grazing". The Bryologist. 82 (3): 393–408. doi:10.2307/3242215. JSTOR 3242215.
  • Thomson, Norman F.; Thomson, John W. (1984). "Spore Ornamentation in the Lichen Genus Solorina". The Bryologist. 87 (2): 151–153. doi:10.2307/3243122. JSTOR 3243122.
  • Thomson, John W. (1987). "The Lichen Genera Catapyrenium and Placidiopsis in North America". The Bryologist. 90 (1): 27–39. doi:10.2307/3243269. JSTOR 3243269.
  • Thomson, John W. (1991). "The Lichen Genus Staurothele in North America". The Bryologist. 94 (4): 351–367. doi:10.2307/3243824. JSTOR 3243824.
  • Talbot, Stephen S.; Talbot, Sandra Looman; Thomson, John W. (1992). "Lichens of Tuxedni Wilderness Area, Alaska". The Bryologist. 95 (1): 20–30. doi:10.2307/3243780. JSTOR 3243780.
  • Thomson, J (1995). "The distribution of Arctic lichens and thoughts concerning their origin". The Lichenologist. 27: 411–416. doi:10.1016/S0024-2829(05)80002-7. ISSN 0024-2829.
  • Talbot, S. S.; Thomson, J. W.; Schofield, W. B. (2007). "Lichens from Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and vicinity, east-central Alaska". The Bryologist. 110 (1): 74–91. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(2007)110[74:LFTNWR]2.0.CO;2.

Books and monographs

References
  1. Thomson, John W. (1940). "Relic Prairie Areas in Central Wisconsin". Ecological Monographs. 10 (4): 685–717. doi:10.2307/1943556. ISSN 0012-9615. JSTOR 1943556. (abridgment of Thomson's 1939 Ph.D. thesis, 123 pages)
  2. Ahti, Teuvo (2009). "A tribute to John Walter Thomson (1913–2009)". The Lichenologist. 41 (6): 561–563. doi:10.1017/S0024282909990508. ISSN 0024-2829.
  3. Bennett, John (March 10, 2009). "Lichenologist John Walter Thomson (1913–2009)". Botanical Electronic News (405).
  4. Cochrane, Theodore S. (April 2009). "In Memoriam: John Walter Thomson 1913 – 2009". Wisconsin Flora (Newsletter of the Botanical Club of Wisconsin): 1–3. reprinted in: Cochrane, Theodore S. (April 2009). "In Memoriam: John W. Thomson". The Great Lakes Botanist: A Journal of North American Botany. 48 (2): 61–62.
  5. Gilchrist, Susan Cantrell (2013). "Interview: John Walter Thomson and Olive (Sherman) Thomson". Views of the Ridge: Oral Perspectives from the Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area in Southwest Wisconsin (PDF). Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. pp. 197–203.
  6. Henderson, Rich (Spring 2009). "Remembering a Conservation Leader and Educator" (PDF). The Prairie Promoter. The Prairie Enthusiasts. 22 (1): 3–4.
  7. Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories, College of Biological Sciences (February 20, 2015). "About Itasca". University of Minnesota.
  8. "Lichens". Wisconsin State Herbarium.
  9. "Olive Thomson WCGF Nominee Passes". The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. September 24, 2017.
  10. Enerson, D. E. (1980). "In memoriam. Douglas E. Thomson, M.D.". Radiology. 135 (3): 798. doi:10.1148/radiology.135.3.6992202. ISSN 0033-8419. PMID 6992202.
  11. "Thomson Memorial Prairie". The Nature Conservancy.
  12. "Schurch-Thomson Prairie". The Prairie Enthusiasts.
  13. "Acharius Medallists". International Association for Lichenology. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  14. Hawksworth, D. L. (July 1999). "Review of Lichenographia Thomsoniana: North American Lichenology in Honour of John W. Thomson, edited by M. G. Glenn, R. C. Harris, R. Ding and M. S. Cole". The Lichenologist. 31 (4): 403. doi:10.1006/lich.1999.0214. ISSN 0024-2829.
  15. "John Thomson Award". Botanical Club of Wisconsin.
  16. IPNI.  J.W.Thomson.
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