Biography

American authority on the forests of Puerto Rico and director of the U.S. government's Institute of Tropical Forestry from 1956-1978. Frank Wadsworth was born in Chicago and studied at the University of Michigan, where he received his PhD in forestry. His dissertation was on the management of the Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico. He began work at the island's Tropical Forest Experimental Station in Rio Pedras as a research officer and when the site became the Institute of Tropical Forestry in 1956, he became its director. He continued to work as a researcher and consultant in every country in tropical America even after his retirement. Wadsworth has published more than 100 scientific books and papers, including Common trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (1964-1989, co-authored with Elbert Little) and Flora of Virgin Gorda (British Virgn Islands) (1976, with Little and R.O. Woodbury).

Sources:
J.A. Vozzo, 2002, Tropical Tree Seed Manual: 6
U.S. National Forest Service, El Yunque National Forest:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/el_yunque/about/panel_6-6b.pdf.