Professor Benito Tan has moved on...

[budak]

to the National Parks Board: see

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/news/index.ph...takes_over.txt

Other honours:
http://www.eart-h.com/text/mossman.htm
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/news/index.ph...otan_iabVP.txt
http://www.contactsingapore.org.sg/c...article6.shtml
http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?requ...e=03&page=0454

KL, did he ever mention his hope of finding a moss in the Philippines that he could name after the late Presidente Marcos?

[timebomb]

For a moment, when I saw the subject heading, I thought the professor must have kicked the bucket or something

Thanks goodness he's only changing jobs Yup, the professor will be joining the Botanical Gardens as a deputy director, I think.

As for finding a moss to name after Marcos, I don't know, Budak. We don't talk politics, if you know what I mean. But the professor told me that his mother was quite unhappy when he told her of the news that a moss was named after him - the moss Benitotania. It's supposed to be a monospecific genus. I'm not sure but I think that means it's the only one of its kind. In other words, the genus has only one species, there's no other.

Anyway, the professor's mother was unhappy because she thinks that if you have to have a moss named after you, find one that's pretty and not one as ugly as Benitotania. It's like in the good old days when the scientists first went into the Amazon river. They found so many new species they can afford to pick and choose the ones they want to be named after them. In those days, if you're their enemy, they pick the most ugliest creature and name it after you.

Loh K L

[budak]

haha... with references to the hypothetical Marcos moss, the good professor was thinking (I trust it's ok to repeat it as he mentioned it at a public talk) it would have been apt to find and name after the late kleptocratic president a nice Philippine moss from the family Splachnaceae. Google around to learn what substrate this interesting moss family prefers to live on...

he might also have mentioned that if you want some organism named after you, it's far better to get the lowest rank of all, i.e. the species name rather than the generic name. This is because generic names might change in the future if a later scientist decides the genus should be synonymised with another, while the original species name is always kept, even if the genus or family of the species is reassigned. Kind of like family names, whereby the daughter of even an ancient scion has to take on the surname of whomever she marries...

here's the picture of the moss named after the professor...

[fish newb]

For a moment, when I saw the subject heading, I thought the professor must have kicked the bucket or something

Loh K L

Loh, Same thing I thought...

Time to change title?

So this seems to be a promotion?

Congrats to him!

-Andrew

[timebomb]

Google around to learn what substrate this interesting moss family prefers to live on...

Hmm, interesting, a moss that thrives on dung. I'm surprised the professor said those things about Marcos and at a public gathering at that. Never knew he's a political animal just like me but then again, Marcos was such a crook anyone with any sense of justice would be delighted to see his name stink for posterity

Time to change title?

There's no reason to change the title, Andrew, not unless the thread-starter requests it himself.

So this seems to be a promotion?

It's neither a promotion nor a demotion. As the title of this thread says, "he's just moving on, from one organisation to another".

Loh K L