Prof. Paul Claude Silva
Prof. Paul Claude Silva, with whom, I had a brief interaction during 2010 when I came across a specimen of Codium collected from one of the islands of Gulf of Kutch. It was so different from the rest of the species, I encountered before, in its gross morphology and anatomy as well, that I thought of describing it as new species. However, before that, I just wanted to confirm, if my conclusion of it being new species is true or not. And who could have been better than Prof. Paul Silva - a leading authority on Codium - to confirm. To my great surprise, Prof. Silva replied instantly to my email and send me some literature on similar species described before offering me help to prepare a manuscript, unfortunately, which never happened and the species still remained undescribed.
Paul was born in San Diego, California, USA, on 31 October 1922. After graduation, and a one-year post-doctoral fellowship investigating sewage treatment-pond algae, Paul was hired by the Botany Department at the University of Illinois. He liked to emphasize that he was hired as a morphologist, not a phycologist. During eight years at Illinois, he was promoted to Associate Professor and received tenure. He returned to Berkeley in 1960, became a Research Botanist and Curator of Algae at the University Herbarium, and developed a research program dedicated to algae and botanical nomenclature. His position as Research Botanist did not allow him to formally have students; nevertheless, he influenced the graduate careers of many at Berkeley and elsewhere.
I am sure many of us know Paul Silva only for the "Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian Ocean" but his career was astonishing. He published more than 100 scientific papers, two phycological catalogs (one based on a single genus, Scenedesmus, and two based on geographic regions, the Philippines and the Indian Ocean), and many contributions to encyclopedias, book reviews, obituaries, and reports from professional meetings.
His life's work focused on botanical (especially phycological) nomenclature, monographs of the green algal genus Codium, preparation of catalogs, a compilation of information for encyclopedias, and production of floras. There were three factors that predisposed Paul towards a critical investigation of the genus Codium as the doctoral project at Berkeley.
1. William Albert Setchell, Papenfuss's predecessor in the Botany Department, had studied Codiumextensively without publishing the results. He left a trove of notes and specimens.
2. Papenfuss and his collaborators had assembled collections from the species-rich South African coast that included many undescribed species of Codium.
3. Paul had collected a new species of Codium from the California Channel Islands that he eventually described as C. johnstonei. Paul and his collaborators described 36 new taxa of Codium and, equally importantly, revised identifications of other workers that had been based on a superficial analysis of gross morphology.
"The Index Nominum Algarum (INA)" is undoubtedly his greatest contribution to phycology. Early in Paul's graduate student years at Berkeley, influenced, I suspect, by G.F. Papenfuss, who was a notable stickler for detail, use of primary references, and historical accuracy, Paul conceived the idea of compiling a comprehensive index of all algal names. The impetus was the perceived inadequacy of De Toni's Sylloge Algarum, a monumental but incomplete and out-of-date work encompassing both taxonomy and nomenclature. Paul envisaged assembling all information pertaining to names and their typification, history, and publication. He did not propose to catalog circumscription or usage. With support from the National Science Foundation and the assistance of David Irvine and Nel Rem, Paul worked on the Index Nominum Algarum (INA) during his years at the University of Illinois and continued after he returned to U.C. Berkeley. As the INA became more complete, it served catalogers and monographers locally and globally.
Paul processed tens of thousands of algal names, recording for each at minimum the name, author, bibliographic source, and provenance of the type. Having once typed the information on a 3 X 5 card and proofed it carefully, he remembered it. He seemed to be able to recall every plant that he collected, together with its associates and habitat. Strangely, Paul did not regard his memory as particularly good and sometimes remarked on outstanding feats of memory among his acquaintances.
Paul was committed to excellence in phycological publications, founding the International Phycological Society and serving as editor of Phycologia (1961–1968), member of the editorial committee of Botanica Marina (1983–1997), associate editor, and member of the editorial board of Journal of Phycology (1983–1985), and associate editor of the European Journal of Phycology (1997–1998).
Paul, as a very young boy, accompanied his teenage sister to music lessons. She became his first piano teacher; he was an apt pupil. During his college days, he was sought after as an accompanist. He collaborated with phycologists around the world. He delayed retirement until 2000 and continued a slightly reduced working routine until 2012 when limited mobility confined him to his house except for occasional excursions to the herbarium. He almost never delivered a talk extemporaneously - he always read without deviation from a prepared script. Once, he misplaced a paper he was working on and was forced to rewrite it, only to find the original later and discover that the rewritten version mirrored it nearly word-for-word. His memory remained acute until his last year. He died in Berkeley, California, USA on June 12, 2014, at the age of 91. Despite huge setbacks, including the loss of his lifelong partner, Lawrence Heckard, to AIDS and his house, Westview, to fire, Paul, carried on his exemplary career with courage and distinction. He was among our greatest and will be remembered by so many for so much.
Data compiled by: Dr. Vaibhav A. Mantri, Principal Scientist & Divisional Chair, CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.
Source Credit: In Memorium - P C Silva, University of California, Berkeley by Richard L. Moe 2014.
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