John Alan Elix

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John Alan Elix
Born1941 Edit this on Wikidata
Awards
Academic career
FieldsOrganic chemistry
lichenology
taxonomy,
plant physiology
Institutions
Doctoral studentsSimone Henrica J.J. Louwhoff
Author abbrev. (botany)Elix

John Alan (Jack) Elix (born 1941)[1] emeritus professor in chemistry at the Australian National University,[2][3] is an organic chemist who has contributed in many fields: lichenology, lichen chemotaxonomy, plant physiology[2] and biodiversity and natural product chemistry.[3] He has authored 2282 species names,[4] and 67 genera[5] in the field of mycology.

The standard author abbreviation Elix is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[6]

Education

His first degree, B.Sc., and his Ph.D were both in organic chemistry from the University of Adelaide. This was followed by post-doctoral years at the University of Cambridge and then a D.Sc. in natural products chemistry from the Australian National University.[7]

Career

Elix spent a post doctoral year in 1966 at Cambridge, returning to Australia in 1967 to a lectureship in chemistry at the ANU.[1] He retired as professor of chemistry in 2002,[1] becoming professor emeritus.[3]

By 1975 he had already published several papers on the organic chemistry of lichens,[8][9][10] and ultimately leading to work on the evolution, taxonomy and phylogeny of lichens.[11][12][13] For his work on lichens, Elix was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2004 and the Nancy T Burbidge Medal in 2015.[1] He is a prolific author (or coauthor) of new fungal and lichen species, having formally described about 1147 as of December 2017.[14]

He was honoured in 1997, when lichenologist

fungi in the order Umbilicariales. It contains two genera, Meridianelia, and the type genus, Elixia, which is named after John Alan Elix.[15]

He was also honoured again in 2004, with Melanelixia, which is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae,[16] and in 2016 with Astrothelium elixii, a rare bark-dwelling Bolivian lichen.[17]

Selected publications

  • Elix, John A; Ernst-Russell, Karin D (1993), A catalogue of standardized thin layer chromatographic data and biosynthetic relationships for lichen substances, Australian National University

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Cohn, Helen (2017). "Elix, John Alan (Jack) - Biographical entry - Encyclopedia of Australian Science". www.eoas.info. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Professor John Elix". researchers.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "John ELIX | Emeritus Professor | DSc | Australian National University, Canberra | ANU | Research School of Chemistry (RSC)". ResearchGate. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Mycobank:Advanced search (author contains Elix & rank=sp.)". Mycobank. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Using an advanced search (author name contains "Elix" AND rank=genus)". www.mycobank.org. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  6. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Elix.
  7. ^ Nash, T.H. "IAL - Acharius Medallists: Jack Elix". www.lichenology.org. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  8. Wikidata Q104151554
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  15. ^ Lumbsch, H.T. (1997). "Systematic studies in the suborder Agyriineae (Lecanorales)". Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory. 83: 62.
  16. PMID 15449592
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Further reading