Wee-Lek Chew (周偉力; born 1932) is a Singaporean-born botanist.[1]

Wee-Lek Chew
Born1932 (age 91–92)
OccupationBotanist
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
ThesisA revision of Poikilospermum (Urticaceae) and Taxotrophis (Moraceae) (1960)
Doctoral advisorE. J. H. Corner
Academic work
Institutions
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese周伟力
Hanyu PinyinZhōu Wěilì
Hokkien POJChiu Úi-le̍k

Career

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Chew was born in Singapore in 1932. He did his B.S. in botany at the University of Malaya under Richard Eric Holttum, and following his graduation in 1956 he began working at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.[2] A year later he went to the United Kingdom on a Singapore government fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, where his advisor was E. J. H. Corner. He completed his studies in 1960, and returned to the Singapore Botanic Gardens that year.[2][3] He further received a postdoctoral fellowship in 1964.[4] He became the director and ex officio chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1969 following the retirement of H. M. Burkill.[5] He resigned the following year and moved to Australia to work at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, and was succeeded as director by A. G. Alphonso.[2][6] He was named a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1974.[7] In 1975 he resigned from his post at the National Herbarium of New South Wales to take up a position with the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Morges, Switzerland.[8] He revised the Australian species in the genus Ficus in 1989 for the Flora of Australia.[9]

Works

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  • "A Monograph of Laportea (Urticaceae)". Gardens' Bulletin Singapore. 25: 111–178. 1969. OCLC 183122914.

References

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  1. ^ "Index of Botanists - Chew, Wee-lek". Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard University. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Wee-Lek Chew". National Herbarium of the Netherlands. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  3. ^ Burkill, H. M. (1960). Annual report of the Botanic Gardens Department. Singapore: Government Printing Office. OCLC 504454318.
  4. ^ "植物園高級職員周偉力博士獲英獎學金". Nanyang Siang Pau. 13 January 1964. Retrieved 2021-06-11 – via National Library Board, Singapore.
  5. ^ Annual report of the Botanic Gardens Department. Singapore: Government Printing Office. 1969. p. 8.
  6. ^ Annual report of the Botanic Gardens Department. Singapore: Government Printing Office. 1970. pp. 3, 9.
  7. ^ "Record of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London for the session of 1974–75". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 7 (7): 293–339. December 1975. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1975.tb00230.x.
  8. ^ Wilson, Karen; Armstrong, Jim (November 1975). "Sydney" (PDF). Newsletter of the Australian Systematic Botany Society (6). Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  9. ^ Dixon, Dale J.; Jackes, Betsy R.; Bielig, L.M. (2001). "Figuring Out the Figs: the Ficus obliqua-Ficus rubiginosa Complex (Moraceae: Urostigma sect. Malvanthera)". Australian Systematic Botany. 14 (1): 133–54. doi:10.1071/SB99029.
  10. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Chew.