Barney L. Lipscomb, editor, author, writer, public speaker, and researcher, is the Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. He is from Temple, Oklahoma. He attended Temple High School (1968); Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma (B.S Biology, 1973); and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (M.S. Botany, 1976).
He began his career in 1975 at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas Texas as the herbarium botanist. Soon after his arrival at SMU, he became assistant editor of a botanical journal Sida, now called Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Barney is presently working at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in Fort Worth, and was appointed the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany in February 2001. He is now Director of BRIT’s scientific press.
Mr. Lipscomb is one of the co-authors of the “Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas” (1999), a 1640 page, fully illustrated, comprehensive guide to a large portion of the diverse plant life of Texas. Lipscomb is also a co-author of a three-volume flora, the “Illustrated Flora of East Texas.” [Vol. 1, 2006, 1612 pp]. He is co-author of the 392 page, Ferns and Lycophytes of Texas (Feb 2014). In addition, he has authored another 30 scientific publications.
Barney has an interest and expert knowledge of poisonous plants, and has given many lectures and talks on the subject; he serves on the board for the North Texas Poison Center, as a member of the board of consultants. He enjoys teaching about botany at schools and being called “Barney the Botanist.” Barney also has an interest in forensic botany, and has provided expertise and assistance in several criminal cases. Mr. Lipscomb has appeared in many newspaper, radio, and television pieces on botany. In summary, Mr. Lipscomb has lectured, demonstrated, guided, taught, trained, educated, explained, and described plants and botanical science to just about every conceivable nonscientist and scientists alike.