Position: Research Fellow Botany, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Field: Botany.
Dr Patrick Brownsey’s areas of interest include plants, ferns, biosystematics and taxonomy. He became interested in biosystematics while at the University of Leeds, England, during the 1960s. He credits this interest to his Botany Professor, Irene Manton, who was a truly inspirational teacher. His interest in ferns was more incidental. Ferns were the subject matter that Irene Manton and her colleagues at Leeds were working on, so when Patrick came to do his PhD, he worked on ferns too.
Subsequently, he had the opportunity to come to New Zealand where he found himself in a country that was full of ferns! There were far more ferns here than in England, and it’s here that Patrick became interested in ferns for their own sake. Patrick has been working at Te Papa for many years now. He enjoys the diversity of his role and considers it a dream job.
Being a curator in a museum is a dream job because it’s really a vocation rather than a job you go into for the money.
Nature of science
Scientists’ personal interests can influence the questions they investigate. Patrick’s interest in ferns has carried on from early research as a student to his job as a senior curator in a national museum.
A major part of Patrick’s role is looking after the collections of reference plants. He is also involved with research to find out new things about plants, to look for new species, to work out the relationships with other species and with other countries’ flora. He gets to go out and work in the field from time to time.
There are also outreach aspects of the job that are very rewarding. A proportion of his time is spent developing exhibitions, and then there is a whole range of teaching and talks to different people. He gives talks to a wide range of groups, including school groups, university groups and community groups as well as to national and international conferences. Meeting a very wide range of people and talking about ferns to them is always enjoyable for Patrick!
Patrick is currently working with Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research to publish an online eFlora of New Zealand.
In 2017 Patrick became the second New Zealander to receive the Nancy T. Burbidge Medal. It is the highest award of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society. First presented in 2001, it was established as a way for the Society to honour those who have made a longstanding and significant contribution to Australasian systematic botany.
Related content
If you are interesting in finding about more about a career in botany, see our article Botany and botanists.
Useful link
Listen to Patrick's 2017 Tennant Lecture, at Otago University: A social history of the fern in New Zealand.
This article is based on information current in 2010 and updated in 2018.
