{"id":2386,"date":"2015-09-04T16:35:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T20:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=2386"},"modified":"2015-09-08T11:42:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T15:42:24","slug":"garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden Scientists Pay Tribute to Dr. Oliver Sacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stevenson Swanson<\/a> is the Science Media Manager at The New York Botanical Garden<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Oliver Sacks with the Garden\u2019s Patricia Holmgren, Ph.D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since his death on August 30, Dr. Oliver Sacks has been described as a latter-day Renaissance man who took a learned delight in many things\u2014neurology, certainly, but also minerals, squids, and other cephalopods such as cuttlefish, and, most definitely, plants.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sacks, who was a Board Member of The New York Botanical Garden and a 2011 recipient of the Botanical Garden\u2019s Gold Medal, was especially fascinated with cycads and ferns, and the Garden\u00a0scientists who specialize in those plants were among those at the Garden who knew him well.<\/p>\n

Cycad expert Dennis Stevenson, Ph.D., the Garden\u2019s Vice President for Botanical Research and Cullman Curator, recalled that Dr. Sacks, who for many years paid regular Wednesday visits to the Garden, enjoyed bringing together people from the various fields that appealed to his eclectic nature so they could learn from each other. Botanists learned about cephalopods from marine biologists; geologists learned about plant science from botanists.<\/p>\n

“Oliver was always in a most subtle way teaching all of us about the world around us,” Dr. Stevenson said.
\n
\nRobbin Moran, Ph.D., Curator of Ferns and the Mary Flagler Cary Curator of Botany, co-organized the trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, that Dr. Sacks described in his book\u00a0Oaxaca Journal.<\/em>\u00a0He\u00a0noticed how avidly Dr. Sacks took notes about everything around him, as he describes in this tribute<\/a> to Dr. Sacks on the Website of the national science program Science Friday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had different colored pens that I guess he would use, like if he was taking notes about Aztec astronomy or something, he would do it in red, and then something else, like ferns, would be in green,\u201d Dr. Moran says. \u201cI began to get a sense of what a compulsive writer he was. He was really fun to talk to, about anything. And I’m really going to miss him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Dr. Oliver Sacks’ passing, NYBG scientists recall his verve for life and learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":2388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[310],"tags":[139,586,18,311],"yoast_head":"\nGarden Scientists Pay Tribute to Dr. Oliver Sacks - Science Talk Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Garden Scientists Pay Tribute to Dr. Oliver Sacks - Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wake of Dr. Oliver Sacks' passing, NYBG scientists recall his verve for life and learning.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-04T20:35:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-08T15:42:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OliverSacksPatHolmgren.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"796\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"839\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stevenson Swanson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/\",\"name\":\"Science Talk Archive\",\"description\":\"Exploring the science of plants, from the field to the lab\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OliverSacksPatHolmgren.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OliverSacksPatHolmgren.jpeg\",\"width\":796,\"height\":839,\"caption\":\"Dr. Oliver Sacks with the Garden\u2019s Patricia Holmgren, Ph.D.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2015\/09\/garden-scientists-pay-tribute-to-dr-oliver-sacks\/\",\"name\":\"Garden Scientists Pay Tribute to Dr. Oliver Sacks - 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