Neil Towers
Canadian botanist (1923-2004)
George Hugh Neil Towers FRSC (28 September 1923 – 15 November 2004) was a Canadian botanist. He was Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of British Columbia. He was awarded the Flavelle Medal in 1986 and was cited extensively for his work in medicinal phytochemistry and ethnopharmacology of medicinal plants.
Life
He was born in Bombay, India and was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel George William Towers D.S.O., O.B.E. (Royal Engineers).
His scientific curiosity was aroused by the vast array of insect, plant and reptile life in the tropical climate of Burma where his mother Kathleen Mary Thompson had been born. His mother's family had lived continuously in Burma since the late 18th century.
During World War II he served with distinction in the Royal Navy aboard Corvettes reaching the rank of Lieutenant. After obtaining his PhD at Cornell University in 1954, he worked at McGill University and the National Research Council of Canada before being recruited to the University of British Columbia as Head of the Botany Department.
References
Professor George Hugh Neil Towers, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. Botanical Electronic News, 337. Accessed online: 20 February 2010.
The public source identifies “Neil Towers” as canadian botanist (1923-2004). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Neil, Towers and Canadian.
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This entry incorporates text from “Neil Towers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.