Africa Loses an Excellent Botanist and Teacher, Professor Brian Harris

On 20 April 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Africa lost one of its foremost botanists and University teachers of botany after a brief illness. Brian James Harris was born on 27 August 1929 in Neath, South Wales. By 1949 he had obtained his BSc in Agricultural Botany from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and in 1953, he earned a PhD from the University of Wales. Soon after obtaining his PhD, he was appointed as a Lecturer in the Botany Department of the University of Ghana (at the time the University College of the Gold Coast.) and continued in that post until 1965. From 1965 he was appointed Reader in Botany and Head of Department, University of Dar es Salaam. Brian developed an interest in field courses for students, and was a firm believer in the importance of students knowing how to identify plants and how to prepare and use herbarium specimens for research.