Richard Neville Lester

Richard Neville Lester (13 June 1937 – 4 April 2006) was an English botanist and chemotaxonomist.

botanist|Lester|ref= In 1980, together with his student Peter Jaeger, he started a taxonomic revision of all African Solanum species, which remained incomplete at the time of his death.

He retired in 2000 and was later diagnosed with cancer; he died in Birmingham on 4 April 2006. He remained active in retirement and worked (2000-2005) as coordinator of EGGNET where he oversaw the transfer of the endangered Solanaceae collection at Birmingham to Nijmegen Botanical Garden, INRA Montfavet, and Valencia Polytechnic University. He also completed a conspectus of Solanum with co-author Alan Child.

He married Celia Davidson in 1972 and they had two children, John and Clare.

Selected publications The Biology and taxonomy of the Solanaceae. Hawkes, J. G., Lester, R. N., Skelding, A. D. (1979). Linnean Society of London, Academic Press. Solanaceae III : taxonomy, chemistry, evolution. Hawkes, J. G., Lester, R. N., Nee, Michael, Estrada, N. (1991). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. International Solanaceae Congress (3rd: 1988 : Bogota, Colombia). Solanaceae IV : advances in biology and utilization. Lester, R. N., Nee, Michael, Symon, David Eric, Jessop, John. (1999). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. International Solanaceae Congress (4th: 1994 Adelaide).