Randall James Bayer is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 systematic botanist, published mostly as "R.J. Bayer", who was born in Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, U.S.A.

He spent childhood and attended public school in East Aurora, New York

East Aurora, New York

East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. The Village of East Aurora lies in the eastern half of the Town of Aurora.The population was 6,673 at the 2000 census...

. He completed his B.Sc. with major in Plant Breeding

Plant breeding

Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the genetics of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. Plant breeding can be accomplished through many different techniques ranging from simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics for propagation, to more complex molecular...

 and minor in Horticulture

Horticulture

Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

 in 1978 from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in Ithaca

Ithaca

Ithaca or Ithaka is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. It lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

; an M.Sc. in Systematic Botany in 1980 from the Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

, Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

; and a Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Systematic Botany in 1984 from the Ohio State University with a dissertation on "Evolutionary Investigations in Antennaria". His interest in the genus Antennaria was inspired through noted evolutionary botanist, George Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000), who was a visiting professor at the Ohio State University in 1978-1979.

His early academic career was as an Assistant Professor of Biology and Curator of the Benedict Herbarium (WOCB) at University of Windsor

University of Windsor

The University of Windsor is a public comprehensive and research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has a student population of approximately 15,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students and over 1000 graduate students...

, Windsor

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 (1984–1987). In 1987 he moved to Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada to take up the post of Assistant Professor of Botany and Curator of the Vascular Plant Herbarium (ALTA) at the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

 (1987–1990). He was promoted to Associate Professor of Botany in 1990 and Professor of Botany in 1995. During his sabbatical year in 1994, he was Visiting Adjunct Scientist at Washington State University

Washington State University

Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...

, Department of Botany. While at the University of Alberta he developed his research program on evolutionary studies in Antennaria

Antennaria

Antennaria is a genus of about 45 species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Asteraceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with one species in temperate southern South America; the highest species diversity is in North America...

(Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

). He has become a well-known authority on the genus Antennaria and its associated polyploidy

Polyploidy

Polyploid is a term used to describe cells and organisms containing more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most eukaryotic species are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes — one set inherited from each parent. However polyploidy is found in some organisms and is especially common...

 and apomixis

Apomixis

In botany, apomixis was defined by Winkler as replacement of the normal sexual reproduction by asexual reproduction, without fertilization. This definition notably does not mention meiosis...

. He has contributed taxonomic revisions of this genus to a number of North American floras.

In 1997, he emigrated to Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where he became a Senior Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry working at the Australian National Herbarium (CANB). He also became an Adjunct Reader in Botany at the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

, Division of Botany and Zoology. He specializes in systematics

Systematics

Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...

 and evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 of the Asteraceae (Gnaphalieae

Gnaphalieae

Gnaphalieae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.-Characteristics:This group is most diverse in South America, Southern Africa and Australia. It is sometimes commonly called the pussy's-toes tribe...

) of Australia and the world. Bayer also has expertise in taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of Citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

(Rutaceae

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

)and its close relatives, which have great diversity in SE Asia. R.J. Bayer has published about 100 papers and book chapters in internationally recognized publications.

He has collected plants around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, United States of America, Canada, South America, southern Africa, Madagascar and western Europe. His collections are primarily deposited in various herbaria including ALTA and CANB with duplicates of many collections in CAN, CHR, DAO, F, MO, S, E, X, NBG, NSW, OS, P, PERTH, PRE, RM, TAN, US, and WOCB.

Book chapters

• Bayer, R.J. In press. Antennaria. In: Flora of North America North of Mexico. Edited by the Flora North America Editorial Committee. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Bayer, R. J., I. Breitwieser, J. Ward, and C. F. Puttock. In press. Gnaphalieae. In: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Editor, K. Kubitzki. New York : Springer-Verlag.
• Funk, V. A., R. J. Bayer, S. Keeley, R. Chan, L. Watson, B. Gemeinholzer, E. Schilling, J. L. Panero, B. G. Baldwin, N. Garcia-Jacas, A. Susanna and R. K. Jansen. 2005. Everywhere, but Antarctica: Using a supertree to understand the diversity and distribution of the Compositae. In: Friis, I. & Balslev, H. (eds.) Proceedings of a Symposium on Plant Diversity and Complexity Patterns - Local, Regional and Global Dimensions. The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen. Biol. Skr. 55: 343-374. ISBN 87-7304-304-4.
• Ainouche, A-K, R. J. Bayer, P. Cubas, and M. T. Misset. 2003. Phylogenetic relationships within tribe Genisteae (Papilionaceae) with special reference to the genus Ulex. In B. Klitgaard and A. Bruneau (eds.), Advances in Legume Systematics. Part 10, Higher Level Systematics. pp. 239–252. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
• Miller, J. M. and R.J. Bayer. 2001. Molecular phylogenetics of Acacia (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) based on the chloroplast trnK/matK and nuclear Histone H3-D DNA sequences. In Herendeen PS, Bruneau A, eds. Advances in legume systematics: part 9. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2000, publ. 2001, pp. 181–200.
• Mant, J. G., R.J. Bayer, J. W. H. Trueman, and M. D. Crisp. 2000. A phylogeny of Triodieae (Poaceae: Chloridoideae) based on the ITS region of nrDNA: testing conflict between anatomical and inflorescence characters. In Jacobs S. W. L., Everett J. eds Grasses: Systematics and Evolution. Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO, pp. 213–217.
• Bayer, R.J. 1999. New perspectives into the evolution of polyploid complexes. In: Plant evolution in man-made habitats. Proceedings of the VIIth international symposium of the international organization of plant biosystematists (L.W.D. van Raamsdonk and J. C. M. den Nijs, eds.). Hugo de Vries Laboratory, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pgs. 359-373.
• Stebbins, G.L. and R.J. Bayer. 1993. Antennaria. In: The Jepson Manual of Higher Plants of California, J. Hickman Ed., University of California Press, pgs. 196-198.

External links

• List of Bayer's publications at Australian National Botanic Gardens
  Australian National Botanic Gardens
  The Australian National Botanic Gardens are located in Canberra and are administered by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Heritage....