Hugh Shaw MacKee


Hugh Shaw MacKee previously known as Hugh Shaw McKee was a botanist who was born in Northern Ireland, but who collected in Australia and Oceania, and finally in New Caledonia, where together with his wife and other collaborators, he collected over 46,000 specimens.

Education

Hugh Shaw McKee earned a Bachelor of Botany in 1935 from the University of Belfast, and his doctorate in Plant Physiology in 1938 from Oxford University.

Work

From 1935 to 1938 he worked in London for the South African Co-operative Deciduous Fruit Exchange. He left Europe in 1938 for
Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia, to work in the Queensland Department of Agriculture.
In 1940 he was recruited by the CSIRO and with the defeat of the Japanese in New Guinea, he was seconded to the Tropical Scientific Section of the Australian Army to work in New Guinea. From 1954 to 1956 he was seconded to the South Pacific Commission with headquarters in Noumea, from where he made many collecting expeditions later, he was worked in the Botany Department of Sydney University.
In 1954-55 he went to New Guinea to look into food and nutrition problems.
In 1964 he was recruited by the CNRS to work in New Caledonia, where he remained for the rest of his life, collecting and working, and it was there he changed his name from McKee to MacKee to make it easier for French speakers to know how to say his name.

Publications

Books

Articles

  • Morat, P., Veillon, J.M., & MacKee, H.S.. Floristic relationships of New Caledonian rain forest phanerogams. Association of Systematics Collections and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
  • Jaffré, T., Morat, P., Veillon, J. M., & MacKee, H.S.. Changements dans la végétation de la Nouvelle-Calédonie au cours du Tertiaire: la végétation et la flore des roches ultrabasiques.
  • Morat, P., Jaffré, T., Veillon, J.M., & MacKee, H.S.. Affinités floristiques et considérations sur l’origine des maquis miniers de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.

Names published

Plants named in his honour