English-born botanist working in Australia at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. Born in Alfreton, Derbyshire, Roger Spencer gained an honours degree in botany at the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. He moved to Australia in 1968 to join a multi-disciplinary research team studying the ecology of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. His own research concerned sub-tidal benthic algae at three stations in Port Phillip Bay, up to depths of 60 feet. His studies, which paid special attention to eutrophication and marine fouling, led to the award of his master's and doctoral degrees. Spencer then joined the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne in 1972, where he has remained to this day, also teaching at Melbourne University Botany Department.

Since 1972 Spencer's research has turned to focus on spermatophytes, especially cultivated plants. He is curator of the Horticultural Reference Herbarium at the National Herbarium of Victoria, and Senior Horticultural Taxonomist. Most recently he has published work on the cultigen in Taxon. He is Vice-president of the International Association of Cultivated Plant Taxonomy and a member of the International Commission of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. Spencer has written many popular articles on cultivated plants, especially their nomenclature and taxonomy, and his book Plant Names, a Guide to Botanical Nomenclature is in its third edition. He has also published a popular book on elms in Australia, and on plants with grey, silver and blue foliage, while his major work has been the four-volume Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia.

Sources:
Personal communication, March 2010.