Randall James Bayer

Randall James Bayer (born 13 July 1955) is an American systematic botanist born in Buffalo, New York, who spent his childhood in East Aurora. He earned a B.Sc. with major in plant breeding and minor in horticulture in 1978 from Cornell University; an M.Sc. in systematic botany in 1980 from the Ohio State University; and a Ph.D. in 1984 from the Ohio State University with the dissertation Evolutionary Investigations in Antennaria. His interest in the genus Antennaria was inspired by noted evolutionary botanist George Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000) who was a visiting professor at the Ohio State University in 1978–1979.

Randall James Bayer
Born	(1955-07-13) July 13, 1955 Buffalo, New York
Scientific career
Fields	Systematic botany

His early academic career was as an Assistant Professor of Biology and Curator of the Benedict Herbarium (WOCB) at University of Windsor, Ontario (1984–1987). In 1987 he moved to Edmonton, Alberta to take up the post of Assistant Professor of Botany and Curator of the Vascular Plant Herbarium (ALTA) at the University of Alberta (1987–1990). He was promoted to Associate Professor of Botany in 1990 and Professor of Botany in 1995. During his sabbatical year in 1994, he was Visiting Adjunct Scientist at Washington State University, Department of Botany. While at the University of Alberta he developed his research program on evolutionary studies in Antennaria (Asteraceae). He has become a well-known authority on the genus and its associated polyploidy and apomixis. He has contributed taxonomic revisions of this genus to a number of North American floras.

In 1997, he emigrated to Canberra, Australia, where he became a senior principal research scientist with the CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry working at the Australian National Herbarium (CANB). He also became an Adjunct Reader in Botany at the Australian National University, Division of Botany and Zoology. He specializes in systematics and evolution of the Asteraceae (Gnaphalieae) of Australia and the world. Bayer also has expertise in taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of Citrus (Rutaceae) and its close relatives, which have great diversity in southeast Asia. Bayer has published about 100 papers and book chapters in internationally recognized publications.

He has collected plants around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, United States, Canada, South America, southern Africa, Madagascar and western Europe. His collections are primarily deposited in ALTA and CANB, with duplicates of many collections in herbaria worldwide.