Clifford, Harold Trevor (Trevor) (1927 - 2019)

Summary

Trevor Clifford was an Honorary Research Associate of the Queensland Herbarium and an Honorary Fellow (Geoscience) of the Queensland Museum. Throughout his career, which included a thirty-four year tenure at the University of Queensland, he received many scholarships and awards from top funding bodies including the Nuffield, Carlsberg German Cultural and University of Queensland Foundations. As part of his Master of Science Degree, Clifford mapped 180 square kilometres of the Dandenong Ranges, analysed the geographical distribution of the eucalypts, and prepared a relief model of the area. This study was the foundation for his life-long fascination with plant genetics, statistics and evolution. Clifford next received an Australian National University Scholarship to study at the University of Durham (U.K.) for a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. On completion of these studies he accepted a lectureship in Agricultural Botany at the University College of Ibadan in Nigeria. In 1958 he returned to Australia taking up a Lectureship in Botany at the University of Queensland. He retired in 1992 with the title of Prof Emeritus. His landmark publications include works on grass identification, The families of monocotyledons (1985) with Rolf Dahlgren, and Keys to the families of Queensland flowering plants (Magnoliophyta) (1972) with G. Ludlow.

Details

Chronology

1948

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc) completed at the University of Melbourne

1948 - 1953

Career position - Botany Tutor, then Senior Tutor and part-time Lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

1951

Education - Master of Science (MSc) completed at the University of Melbourne

1953 - 1955

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at Durham University (conferred 1956)

1955 - 1958

Career position - Lecturer in Agricultural Botany at University College, Ibadan in Nigeria

1958 - 1983

Career position - Lecturer in Botany, University of Queensland

1965 - 2019

Award - Fellow of the Linnean Society

1974

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc) received from the University of Melbourne

1982 - 1983

Career position - President, Australian Systematic Botany Society

1983 - 1992

Career position - Professor of Botany, University of Queensland

1990

Career position - Visiting Professor at the Agricultural University in Beijing, China

1992 -

Career position - Emeritus Professor, University of Queensland

1992

Life event - Retired

1994

Career position - Visiting Professor at the University Nusa Cendana in Kapang, Indonesia

1995 -

Career position - Honorary Research Fellow (Geoscience), Queensland Museum

2015 - 2019

Award - Life Member, Royal Society of Queensland

2016

Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to botany, and to tertiary education

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• H. Trevor Clifford - Records, c. 1971 - c. 1995, MS 188; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Harold Trevor Clifford - Records, MS 13608; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details
• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Book Sections

• Clifford, H. Trevor, 'Herbert, Andrew Desmond (1898-1976), Professor of Botany' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 14 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), p. 438. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140504b.htm. Details
• Clifford, H. Trevor, 'White-Haney, Rose Ethel Janet (1877-1953), Botanist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 536-537. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160638b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Clifford, Harold T. ed., Cambridge - Castlemaine: a Tribute to John Stewart Turner on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (St Lucia: Botany Department, University of Queensland, 1988), 71 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Charters, Kate, 'Royal Society of Queensland, award of Life Member: Emeritus Professor Harold Trevor Clifford OAM invested as Life Member, December 2015', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 121 (2016), 87-8. Details
• Clifford, H. Trevor, 'William Thomas Williams 1913-1995', Historical Records of Australian Science, 12 (1) (1998), 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9981210099. Details
• Clifford, H. Trevor, 'David Goodall - multiple decades devoted to the service of ecological knowledge, a whole century devoted to the enjoyment of life', Tropical ecology, 56 (1) (2015), 133-5. Details
• Clifford, H. Trevor, 'In memoriam David William Goodall (4 April 1914 - 10 May 2018)', Journal of vegetation science, 29 (3) (2018), 569-72, https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12655. Details
• Clifford, H.T., 'Seed dispersal by motor vehicles. 47, 311-315.', Journal of Ecology, 47 (1959), 311-315. Details
• Clifford, H.T.; and Williams, W.T., 'Classificatory dendrograms and their interpretation.', Australian Journal of Botany, 21 (1973), 151-162.. Details
• Specht, Alison; Conran, John; Dettmann, Mary; and Rozefelds, Andrew, 'Obituary for H. T. Clifford, 1927 - 2019: a multiversed generalist in plant sciences', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 124 (2020), 167-70. Details
• Watson, L.; and Clifford, H.T., 'Major groups of Australasian grasses - guide to sampling.', Australian journal of Botany, 24 (1976), 489-507. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5892430. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/56670060. Details
• McCarthy, Ann, and Jones, Michael, Harold Trevor Clifford Guide To Records, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2008, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/clif/clif.htm. Details
• 'Clifford, H T (1927-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-459152. Details