Timothy Waters
Dept. Plant Sciences
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3RB
UNITED KINGDOM

Tel. (lab.): 01865 275021

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I was educated at University College School, London, in various second-hand bookshops in central London, and at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where I read Biological Sciences. As an undergraduate, I led an Oxford University Expedition to New Caledonia, and fell in love with New Caledonia's extraordinary flora, including the 18 endemic species of Araucariaceae. In June 2001 I got an unexpected First, and stayed on to do a doctorate in conifer taxonomy.

Agathis Salisb., distributed from Malaysia and Indonesia, through New Guinea and Queensland to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and New Zealand, is a particularly challenging genus to work on. Most herbarium specimens are sterile, the nomenclature is famously confused, there is very little morphological variation between species and next to nothing is known about the phylogeny of the genus. Species delimitation is a particular difficulty, as many morphological characters do not show clear discontinuities from one species to another. I am exploring the uses of molecular data for species delimitation and hope to collect many new specimens, which will enable delimitations to be made on an objective and repeatable basis using published algorithmic implementations such as population aggregation analysis and cladistic haplotype analysis.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone else working on Agathis, or interested in collaborating on fieldwork in the southwest Pacific - contact details are as left.

When I get a chance, and when it's sunny, I head off into the Oxfordshire countryside and spend a happy day looking at the depauperate and weedy flora of lowland Britain, and wishing I lived somewhere a bit warmer with a more interesting, attractive and diverse flora.