Prof Nigel Paul Barker was trained as a plant taxonomist and commenced his PhD at the University of Cape Town at the beginning of the molecular systematics era. His PhD was followed by a stint as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Western Cape, and then the Royal Botanic Garden, in Sydney, Australia.
In 1997 Prof Barker was appointed as a Lecturer at Rhodes University, where he was employed for 18 years, and established the only DNA systematics lab on campus. This facility and his skills served multiple departments and apart from continuing his botanical work on grasses and other plant groups, he collaborated with zoologists, entomologists, marine biologists and ichthyologists.
Prof Barker believes the use of both plant and animal models is a strength, as systematic and population-level studies of these diverse groups provide different and often complementary perspectives on historical processes that have shaped the biota of southern Africa.
He bases his research interests around themes that are region or ecosystem-based, and this resulted in a marine phylogeography and a terrestrial research component focusing on mountains and associated forests, called the Great Escarpment Biodiversity Programme (GEBP).
In 2015 Prof Barker relocated to the University of Pretoria (UP) to take up the position of Head of a large and diverse Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, comprising over 60 staff, 30 of whom are academics. The last four years of his life have thus been focussed on providing strategic leadership to this department. His current interests include legumes, daisies, Proteaceae and orphan crops.
