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Personal details/Botanical CV

Name: Brian John O'Shea
Address: 141 Fawnbrake Avenue, London SE24 0BG
Date of birth: 15th October 1943

Degrees/Diplomas:

  • MSc (Computer Science) (University of London, Birkbeck College, 1986)
  • BA (Open University, 1974)
  • Teaching Certificate (University of London, Goldsmiths College, 1966)

Employment history: I was employed by British Telecommunications plc from January 1968 to March 1994 in various rôles associated with commercial computer project development and management. I took early retirement in March 1994, and now mix occasional computer consultancy with almost full-time bryology. I became a Scientific Associate at The Natural History Museum, London in June 1999.

Bryological activity

  • I joined the British Bryological Society (BBS) in 1963, and have collected and studied bryophytes throughout the UK and in Finland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain (incl. Mallorca, Tenerife), Uganda, Tanzania, D.R. Congo (Zaire), Malawi, South Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, Tobago, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Cook Islands and New Zealand.
  • Member of the BBS Council (1969-71, 1976-79, 1995-6)
  • Honorary Treasurer of the BBS, and Executive member (1983-88)
  • Co-ordinator, BBS Tropical Bryology Group (1990-2002)
  • Co-editor (with Prof. J.-P. Frahm, Bonn, Germany), Computer techniques column Bryological Times (1985 to 1997)
  • Technical assistance editor, Tropical Bryology (1989 to 1999)
  • Editorial Board member, Tropical Bryology, with responsibility for bryological contributions concerning tropical Africa (1999 to date)
  • Member, International Association of Bryologists (IAB) (1972 to date)
  • Member of Sociedad Latinoamericana de Briologia (1987 to date)
  • Formed Tropical Bryology Research with Martin Wigginton in October 1997, to further research into tropical bryophytes.
  • Member of the BBS Tropical Bryology Group expeditions to Mt. Mulanje, Malawi, 1991 and Uganda, 1997.
  • I have given papers at :
    - IAB Bryological Methods Workshop (1988, see reference below)
    - BBS paper reading meetings (1991, 1994, 1996, 2001)
    - IAB Tropical Bryophytes conference in Mexico, 1995 (title: Bryophyte biodiversity and endemism in sub-Saharan Africa)
    - International Botanical Congress, 1999 in St Louis, USA (title: Moss diversity of Africa)
    - IAB conference in Lucknow, India in 2002 (titles: Mosses of Sri Lanka, Mosses of Bangladesh)
    - IAB conference in Venezuela in 2004 (title: Building a bryological framework)
    - International Botanical Congress, 2005 in Vienna, Austria (title: Bryophyte floras in the digital age: providing floras for thiose who can't afford them
  • Joint editor of Guide to bryophytes of sub-Saharan Africa (GBA), a flora to genus level of the bryophytes of sub-Saharan Africa. This is a joint project managed by myself (mosses) and M.J. Wigginton (hepatics) on behalf of Tropical Bryology Research, which we expect to complete during the next few years.
  • Editorial board (editor for mosses) of Mosses and Liverworts of Uganda.
  • Joint organiser of the symposium 'Moss diversity: a global view' at the International Botanical Congress, St Louis, USA, 1999, and of the symposium 'Biogeography of the mosses of the Indian sub-continent' at Lucknow, India, 2002.
  • Author of over 140 items (see publications list for full list).

In August 1997, November 1999 and December 2003 I produced updated versions of the African moss checklist, all available by downloading from the Tropical Bryology Research web site, but in the most recent version this is also available as a printed version.  

I developed and supported the BBS Internet World Wide Web site,  numbering around 160 pages, until the introduction of a new version in June 2003. I still maintain the Tropical Bryology Group web site, from which over seventy documents and a set of identification keys are available, as well as the Tropical Bryology Research and GBAonline websites.

I am the author of TAXA, a piece of computer software that automates many aspects of botanical activity, including the the recording and analysis of collections and herbarium accessions, mapping, distribution, taxonomic work and publishing of results. This software is being used by some members of the BBS Malawi and Uganda expeditions, and also at the BM to manage the Norkett collections. It is also being used to record the distribution of tropical bryophytes and is the provider of data for my checklist of African mosses. It can also be used for local recording (e.g. for county floras).