John Alan Elix
Organic chemist, lichenologist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Alan (Jack) Elix (born 1941)[1] emeritus professor in chemistry at the Australian National University,[2][3] is an organic chemist who has contributed in many fields: lichenology, lichen chemotaxonomy, plant physiology[2] and biodiversity and natural product chemistry.[3] He has authored 2282 species names,[4] and 67 genera[5] in the field of mycology. Elix edited the exsiccata series Lichenes Australasici exsiccati.[6]
- Acharius Medal (2004)
- Nancy T. Burbidge Medal (2015)
lichenology
taxonomy,
plant physiology
- Australian National University (1967–)
John Alan Elix | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 |
| Awards |
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| Academic career | |
| Fields | Organic chemistry lichenology taxonomy, plant physiology |
| Institutions |
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| Doctoral students | Simone Henrica J.J. Louwhoff |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Elix |
The standard author abbreviation Elix is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[7]
Education
His first degree, B.Sc., and his Ph.D. were both in organic chemistry from the University of Adelaide. This was followed by post-doctoral years at the University of Cambridge and then a D.Sc. in natural products chemistry from the Australian National University.[8]
Career
Elix spent a post doctoral year in 1966 at Cambridge, returning to Australia in 1967 to a lectureship in chemistry at the ANU.[1] He retired as professor of chemistry in 2002,[1] becoming professor emeritus.[3]
By 1975 he had already published several papers on the organic chemistry of lichens,[9][10][11] and ultimately leading to work on the evolution, taxonomy and phylogeny of lichens.[12][13][14] For his work on lichens, Elix was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2004 and the Nancy T Burbidge Medal in 2015.[1] He is a prolific author (or coauthor) of new fungal and lichen species, having formally described about 1147 as of December 2017.[15]
He was honoured in 1997, when lichenologist Helge Thorsten Lumbsch published Elixiaceae which is a family of fungi in the order Umbilicariales. It contains two genera, Meridianelia, and the type genus, Elixia, which is named after John Alan Elix.[16]
He was also honoured again in 2004, with Melanelixia, which is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae,[17] and in 2016 with Astrothelium elixii, a rare bark-dwelling Bolivian lichen.[18]
Selected publications
- Elix, John A; Ernst-Russell, Karin D (1993), A catalogue of standardized thin layer chromatographic data and biosynthetic relationships for lichen substances, Australian National University