Oliver Lathe Gilbert

Oliver Gilbert (7 September 1936 – 15 May 2005)

Career In 1963 he was employed by University of Newcastle upon Tyne as a demonstrator. He carried out research into the distribution and effects of air pollution on lichens and mosses and showed that their diversity reduced in moving from countryside to industrial urban areas. He moved to University of Sheffield as a lecturer in landscape ecology in 1968 and was promoted to reader in 1986. He retired in 1993 but continued as a part-time tutor until 2000.

He learnt how to identify the lichen flora of the British Isles in the 1960s and went on many field visits to record more unusual species, and their locations in more remote parts of the country. In 1970 he began a systematic survey of lichen in the Cheviots that lasted for several decades. He also led surveys of the lichen flora of several Scottish islands and mountains. He collaborated with Brian John Coppins, Alan Fryday and Vince Giavarini. Gilbert wrote a book about the efforts to find lichens in the British Isles.

He also studied the urban ecology of Sheffield, identifying that many fig trees grew on the banks of the river Don as it passed through Sheffield, supported by the warm microclimate caused by industrial cooling water. He undertook research into ways to repair urban brownfield land to become a biodiverse habitat and was co-author of the book Habitat Creation and Repair that was considered important for its philosophy and ethics as well as practical information.

Awards and honours He was president of the British Lichen Society from 1976 until 1978 and editor of its bi-annual bulletin from 1980 until 1989. In 1997, he was made an honorary member of the society and in 2004 was awarded its Ursula Duncan Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the study of lichens in Britain. However, inheritance of a tendency to have non-identical twins is a maternal characteristic; there is no inheritance of a tendency to have identical twins.

Personal life He married Daphne Broughton in 1969 and they had three children together, before the marriage was dissolved.