About the Editor-in-Chief
Professor Crayn’s research career has focused on studies of the origins, evolution, biogeography and classification of plants, especially the families Ericaceae, Elaeocarpaceae and Bromeliaceae. His research is:
- discovering, naming and classifying new plant species and determining the evolutionary relationships among them,
- mapping the distribution of ecosystems, species and genetic variation within species across the landscape,
- developing DNA-based tools and ‘matrix keys’ for species identification and rapid biodiversity inventory
- uncovering the deep-time origins and ancient migration pathways of plants that are found in tropical Australia today
This research has been undertaken in a broad range of biomes and countries including the Republic of Panama, Indonesia, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Prof. Crayn is the Director of the Australian Tropical Herbarium, a joint venture between the Australian Government (through CSIRO and the Director, National Parks), the Queensland Government and James Cook University. Since its opening in 2008, Prof. Crayn has led the organisation through a strong growth period in which its 3.5 research scientists published over 250 papers and book chapters, described over 55 species of plants and fungi new to science, grew the research collections by nearly 30,000 herbarium specimens, and built a DNA collection of nearly 22,000 samples.
Prof. Crayn has held positions on a wide range of advisory, policy development and representative bodies in plant systematics and biodiversity science generally, including roles advising state (e.g. Wet Tropics Management Authority Scientific Advisory Committee) and Commonwealth (Australian Biological Resources Study Advisory Committee) governments, leadership roles in professional societies (e.g. Presidency of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society) and roles on granting bodies (e.g. Australian Orchid Foundation). He is currently Chair of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Chair of the Advisory Committee of Taxonomy Australia, Chair of the Flora of Australia Advisory Group, Board member of the Flora Malesiana Foundation, and leads the Phylogenomics project under the Genomics for Australian Plants Framework Data Initiative. He has been an Associate Editor of Australian Systematic Botany since 2009.
He has published over 90 scientific papers and book chapters (35 in the last 5 years), and supervised 18 PhD (9 current), 1 M.Sc. (current) and 6 Honours (1 current) students.
Prof. Crayn also has a considerable record of teaching plant biology, and particularly plant biodiversity, at Tertiary level. His specialities are plant identification and taxonomy.
Editor-in-Chief
Professor Darren M. Crayn
Australian Systematic Botany
Australian Tropical Herbarium
James Cook University Cairns Campus
PO Box 6811
Cairns QLD 4870
Australia
Telephone +61 7 4042 1837
Email darren.crayn@jcu.edu.au
