Peter James de Lange

Peter James de Lange (born 1966 in Hamilton, Waikato) is a New Zealand botanist. Schooled in Hamilton, he graduated from the University of Waikato as B.Sc. in biological and earth sciences then as M.Sc. in paleoecology and tephrochronostratigraphy. He has a PhD from the University of Auckland, the subject of his thesis, the biosystematics of Kunzea ericoides. From 1990 to 2017 he worked as a threatened plant scientist in the Ecosystems and Species Unit of Research and Development in the New Zealand Department of Conservation. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sassari, Sardinia and now employed as an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental & Animal Sciences, Unitec Institute of Technology (New Zealand). He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, recipient of the New Zealand Botanical Society Allan Mere award (2006) and also the Loder Cup (2017) for his botanical work. One plant, the Three Kings Islands endemic kawakawa (pepper) described as Macropiper excelsum subsp peltatum f. delangei and now placed in Piper, as P. excelsum subsp. delangei is named in his honour. He is the author of 30 books and 180 scientific papers.