Botany staff
Postal address:
World Museum
William Brown Street
Liverpool
L3 8EN
England
Email: themuseum@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk|
Wendy Atkinson
Botany Curator and Collections Database Manager
My duties involve the care and management of the botanical collections of World Museum. My particular responsibilities lie in the curation and development of the collections, and in managing their documentation and digitisation.
I support access to the collections through enquiries, displays, workshops and exhibitions, and through the supervision of volunteers, work placements and visiting researchers. I am also responsible for the botanical library.
My areas of interest lie in the British and Irish Flora, with a particular research interest in the Flora of Bantry Bay, SW Ireland. I am also involved in botany at a local level and am the secretary of the Liverpool Botanical Society.
Geraldine Reid PhD
Head of Botany, Curator of non-flowering plants
I manage the Botany department and I am responsible for the development and management of World museum's internationally important botanical collections.
My primary interests are in diatom taxonomy, systematics, biogeography and evolution, working on both freshwater and marine species. The breadth of my research is on a global scale and has interests in the UK, Lake Baikal, Mongolia, China, Europe, Central America, United Arab Emirates, looking at diatom distribution patterns and whether there may be explanations to account for these patterns.
My current research focuses on a revision of the diatom family Pleurosigmataceae and the evolution and biogeography of diatoms around the pacific-rim.
I am investigating the potential effects of climate change looking at changes in the local diatom flora of the Mersey and Dee estuaries, using museum collections as a baseline. I am involved in the ongoing long-term monitoring of the algae and diatoms of the Liverpool docks.
Donna Young
Curator of Herbarium
My main area of duty is the care and maintenance of c.400,000 botanical specimens and items at World Museum, as well as promoting their importance and facilitating their access through loan, research and exhibition. I am particularly interested in the methods employed in the preparation and preservation of botanical collections.
I am actively involved in the promotion of natural science collections in the UK; standing on committee of the Natural Sciences Conservation Group and later the Natural Science Collection Association (NatSCA). In 2011, I became a mentor for the Curatorial Traineeship 'Skills for the Future'. Recently I developed and delivered modules on the new NatSCA workshop 'Caring for Botanical Collections' (2012)
Part of my job at World Museum is also to act as curatorial venue lead on the public events program 'Wonderful World'|, liaising with curatorial and learning staff. Past events have included co-ordinating a series of events and activities celebrating Darwin200 (2009) and International year of Biodiversity (2010).
George Russell PhD
Honorary Curator of Algae
My current primary interest is in the marine algae of Merseyside. Together with Chris Felton (entomology department|) I have recently completed a study of the driftweed coming ashore along the Sefton coastline. As a result we now know which species occur (including the invasive alien Sargassum multicum) and where they originate. I am also recording the flora of the Liverpool South docks and the changes that may follow the extensions of the Leeds-Liverpool canal into the docks system. Finally I continue with my long term monitoring of the seaweeds of the local sandstone and artificial reefs.
I have published (2011) a study of hybrid Fucus on the shore of New Brighton and shown that the hybrids have now replaced entirely both of the original parent species.