Warren H. Wagner Jr. (August 29, 1920 – January 8, 2000), known as Herb Wagner, from his middle name, "Herbert," was an eminent American botanist who lived in Michigan. A longtime faculty member at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), he developed, in the early 1960s, the first algorithm for discerning phylogenetic relationships among species based upon their respective character states observed over a set of characters. This work was honored by James Farris and Arnold Kluge in their later appellation of related algorithms as "Wagner parsimony."
Wagner specialized in the ferns, especially the Botrychiaceae.
Apparently among modern phylogenetic systematists, Wagner is alone in having been mentioned in a Hollywood film (A New Leaf, starring Elaine May and Walter Matthau).
Note: not to be confused with the American botanist Warren L. Wagner (1950- ).
The standard author abbreviation W.H.Wagner is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.Famous quotes containing the words warren and/or wagner:
“The oaks, how subtle and marine!
Bearded, and all the layered light
Above them swims; and thus the scene,
Recessed, awaits the positive night.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“... our lives are like soap operas. We can go for months and not tune in to them, then six months later we look in and the same stuff is going on.”
—Jane Wagner (b. 1935)