Tom Tutin facts for kids
Thomas Gaskell Tutin (born April 21, 1908 – died October 7, 1987) was a very important plant scientist, also known as a botanist. He taught at the University of Leicester. He also helped write two huge books about plants: Flora of the British Isles and Flora Europaea. He was even a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a big honor for scientists.
Early Life and Adventures
Tutin was born in Kew, Surrey, England, on April 21, 1908. His father, Frank Tutin, was a biochemist, a scientist who studies the chemistry of living things.
Young Tutin went to Cotham Grammar School in Bristol. Later, he won a special scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge. There, he studied Biological Sciences, which is all about living things.
Even before he finished college, Tutin went on an exciting trip in 1929. He joined a plant expedition to Madeira and the Azores, which are islands in the Atlantic Ocean. After this trip, he wrote two scientific papers about the plants he found.
After graduating in 1930, he continued his studies in Cambridge. He also went on more plant expeditions. In 1931, he explored southern Spain and Spanish Morocco. In 1933, he traveled to British Guiana (now Guyana) in South America. His team explored along the Essequibo River.
After these trips, he moved to Plymouth. He worked at the Marine Biological Association. There, he studied a disease affecting eel grass, a type of plant that grows in the sea. In 1937, he joined another expedition to Lake Titicaca. This huge lake is high in the Andes mountains in South America. He wrote an important paper about how plant groups grow and stay stable in lakes.
Later, Tutin worked briefly at King's College London. Then, he became a teacher at the University of Manchester. During World War II, he taught and also helped watch for fires. He became very interested in tiny lake plants called algae. This interest grew from his trip to Lake Titicaca. He visited a research station near Windermere in England. There, he met his future wife.
In 1942, Tutin joined the Naval Intelligence Division in Cambridge. This group made special maps and books for the military. Tutin's job was to survey the fenlands (wet, marshy areas) in northern England. He looked for a plant called buckthorn. The charcoal from this plant was used in some shell fuses during the war.
Professor at Leicester
In 1944, Tutin became a lecturer in charge of the botany department at University College, Leicester. In 1947, he became the first full professor of botany there. The college later became the University of Leicester in 1957.
Besides teaching, Tutin became very interested in taxonomy. This is the science of naming, describing, and classifying living things. Another famous botanist, Sir Arthur Tansley, pointed out that a new book about British plants was needed.
Tutin started working with two other botanists, Arthur Roy Clapham and E. F. Warburg. Together, they wrote the 1591-page Flora of the British Isles. This huge book was published in 1952. It quickly became the main book for studying British plants. They also wrote a shorter, easier-to-use book called Excursion Flora, which was also very popular.
Because of this success, Tutin wanted to study plants from even wider areas. In 1954, at a big meeting of botanists in Paris, they decided a book about all the plants in Europe was needed. A group of British botanists formed a committee, with Tutin as the leader. For more than twenty years, they worked to collect and publish the massive Flora Europaea.
Tutin was also the President of the Botanical Society of the British Isles from 1957 to 1961. He retired from his teaching job in 1973 when he was 65. But he kept working on Flora Europaea and other projects.
In 1977, he received the Gold Medal from the Linnean Society of London. This is a very important award for naturalists. In 1979, the University of Dublin gave him an honorary science doctorate degree. In 1982, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a top scientific honor.
Family Life
In 1942, Thomas Tutin married Winifred Pennington. She was also a scientist who studied ancient environments. They had a son and three daughters. Tutin passed away in Leicester on October 7, 1987.
