Laurence J. Dorr

Laurence Joseph Dorr (born September 18, 1953) is an American botanist and plant collector. He specializes in the systematics of the order Malvales and the family Ericaceae.

Biography In 1971 Dorr graduated from Roxbury Latin School and matriculated at Washington University in St. Louis. By his junior year, he took a break for a year, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in five months, and then went plant collecting in British Columbia and Alaska. In 1976 he received a bachelor's degree in earth sciences and planetology from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1980 he received a master's degree in botany from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1983 he received a Ph.D. From University of Texas at Austin with dissertation "The Systematics and Evolution of the Genus Callirhoe (Malvaceae)".

Having received ... a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin (where he met his wife, Lisa Barnett, who is also a botanist), Dorr worked three years in Madagascar for the Missouri Botanical Garden, returning briefly to Austin so his wife could complete her Ph.D. Then the New York Botanical Garden offered Dorr a job in the Andes; for the next five years, Dorr and Barnett divided time among New York, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. He was from 1992 to 1996 editor-in-chief of the ASPT Newsletter. He has served on the editorial boards of BioLlania, BioScience, Brittonia, Flora Neotropica, and Taxon. He is the author or coauthor of over 100 scientific articles and has written or edited several books.