Rogers McVaugh

Rogers McVaugh (May 30, 1909 – September 24, 2009) was a research professor of botany and the UNC Herbarium's curator of Mexican plants. He was also Adjunct Research Scientist of the Hunt Institute in Carnegie Mellon University and a Professor Emeritus of botany in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The plant genus Mcvaughia was named in his honor in 1979.

Born in New York City, Rogers McVaugh was a brilliant student. He earned the bachelor's degree with highest honors in botany from Swarthmore College in 1931 and a Ph.D in botany from the University of Pennsylvania in 1935.

McVaugh's first published paper is Recent Changes in the Composition of a Local Flora, published in 1935. His final publication was Marcus E. Jones in Mexico, 1892, published in 2005.

McVaugh's last, partially completed work was the Flora Novo-Galiciana, a multi-volume work focusing on the diverse flora of a region in western Mexico. In 1984, he was awarded the Botanical Society of America’s Henry Allan Gleason Award for his work on this project.

McVaugh published about 12 books and 200 shorter articles in history of botany, floristics and systematic botany, including Recent Changes in the Composition of a Local Flora [1]. Among his contributions was a biography of the 19th-century naturalist Edward Palmer.

In 1937 Rogers McVaugh married Ruth Beall, who died in 1987. His two children are Michael Rogers McVaugh and

Jenifer Beall McVaugh.

On May 30, 2009 he celebrated his 100th birthday. He died, aged 100, on September 24, 2009.

• 1935-1938: Instructor then Asst. Professor, Botany, University of Georgia, Athens
• 1938-1946: Associate Botanist, Division of plant exploration & introduction, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• 1946-1951: Associate Professor, Botany, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• 1951-1974: Professor, Botany, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• 1955-1956: Program Director for Systematic Biology, National Science Foundation, 1974-1979: Harley Harris Bartlett Professor of Botany, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• 1946-1979: Curator of Vascular Plants, University of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor
• 1972—1975: Director, University of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor
• 1979–present: Professor Emeritus, Botany, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• 1980–present: Research Professor of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 1981–present: Adjunct Research Scientist, Hunt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

• International Association for Plant Taxonomy: Vice-President 1969-1972, President 1972-1975
• Festschrift in Taxon, 1979
• Botanical Society of America-Merit Award, 1977
• Sociedad Botánica de Mexico- Gold Medal 1978
• New York Botanical Garden- Henry Allan Gleason award 1984, for Flora Novo-Galiciana vol. 14 (1983)
• American Society of Plant Taxonomists—First Annual Asa Gray award, 1984
• University of Guadalajara, Mexico— First Luz María Villarreal de Puga Medal, 1993
• International Botanical Congress, St. Louis, USA – Millennium Medal, 1999 (one of eight worldwide)
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. – First Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany, 2001
• Botanical Society of America - Centennial Award, 2006