Beryl Brintnall Simpson

Beryl B. Simpson is a professor emerita in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously she was an associate curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the Department of Botany. She studies plant systematics and tropical botany, focusing on angiosperms found in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central and South America. She was awarded the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany for her decades of work on the subject.

Simpson was awarded the Asa Gray Award of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) in 2003. This is a lifetime achievement award given by to individuals for outstanding accomplishments in research and mentoring.

Simpson is a member of many societies and has served in a number of committees and positions. She has been the President of: In 2001 the Society for Economic Botany, from 1993 to 1994 the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 1990-1992 the Botanical Society of America, 1984-1986 the Society for the Study of Evolution. She was co-president of the II and III International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology. with Molly Conner-Ogorzaly which was first published in 1986 and has been reissued in its fourth edition in 2014. It is considered the leading undergraduate university-level textbook in economic botany. are: J Choo, T. Juenger, BB Simpson. 2012. Consequences of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal for the spatial and genetic structures of a Neotropical palm. Molecular Ecology 21, 1019–1031. RE Timme, BB Simpson, CR Linder. 2007. High-resolution phylogeny for Helianthus (Asteraceae) using the 18S-26S ribosomal DNA external transcribed spacer. American Journal of Botany 94, 1837–1852. A Weeks, DC Daly, BB Simpson. 2005. The phylogenetic history and biogeography of the frankincense and myrrh family (Burseraceae) based on nuclear and chloroplast sequence data. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution 35 (1), 85–101. JA Tate, BB Simpson. 2003. Paraphyly of Tarasa (Malvaceae) and diverse origins of the polyploid species. Systematic Botany, 723–737. BB Simpson. 1983. Evolution and diversity of floral rewards. in Handbook of experimental pollination biology, 142–159. BB Simpson, JL Neff. 1981. Floral rewards: alternatives to pollen and nectar. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 301–322. JL Neff, BB Simpson. 1981. Oil-collecting structures in the Anthophoridae (Hymenoptera): morphology, function, and use in systematics. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 95–123. BB Simpson. 1979. Quaternary biogeography of the high montane regions of South America. The South American herpetofauna: its origin, evolution, and dispersal 157, 188. BB Simpson, J Haffer. 1978. Speciation patterns in the Amazonian forest biota. Annual review of ecology and systematics 9 (1), 497–518. BB Simpson. 1975. Pleistocene changes in the flora of the high tropical Andes. Paleobiology 1 (3), 273–294. OT Solbrig, BB Simpson. 1974. Components of regulation of a population of dandelions in Michigan. The Journal of Ecology, 473–486.