American botanist at the University of Nebraska. Robert (Bob) Egan is interested in lichen taxonomy and studies the family Parmeliaceae in particular. Born in Buffalo, New York, he attended the University of Colorado-Bolder, gaining a BA in 1967 and an MA in 1969. It was here, as an undergraduate, that he was taught a course entitled Morphology of Non-Vascular Plants which inspired him to study botany, and the lichens in particular. In 1971 Egan gained a PhD from the same institution with a thesis on the alpine lichens of Colorado and New Mexico, and went on to become an Assistant Professor at Castleton State College in Vermont. Remaining there until 1975, he moved on to Texas A&M University in College Station before settling at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1979. Here he was named a Professor in 1985 and served as Chair of the Department of Botany (1989-1992).

Egan has collected lichens throughout the United States and parts of Canada as well as in some Central American countries. In the USA he has undertaken floristic projects in New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming and has recently been involved in a National Science Foundation funded, multi-investigator study of the lichen family Parmeliaceae in Mexico. With well over 100 scientific publications to his name, his papers cover floristic, taxonomic and ecological topics, and include the quarterly series "Recent Literature on Lichens". Currently numbering 64 instalments (1979-2011) this series is published in the journal The Bryologist. Egan has been a life-long member of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society and served as its President (2 years), President-Elect (2 years), Past-President (2 years) and Secretary-Treasurer (9 years). He also belongs to several other lichenological societies, including the British Lichen Society. In honour of his contributions in this field, the species Buellia eganii Bungartz and Xanthoparmelia eganii Elix & T.H.Nash bear his name.

Sources:
Personal communication, June 2011.