William R. Buck, known as Bill Buck, received his Master of Science from the University of Florida in 1974. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1979. That same year he joined the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), where he became Curator of Bryophytes in 1986 and Senior Curator in 2000. Since 1986, he has also held an adjunct professorship at the City University of New.
His research has focused particularly on the systematics, morphology and evolution of mosses, especially pleurocarpous groups. Extensive fieldwork has taken him throughout North and South America and to parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Melanesia. His floristic studies have included surveys of the West Indies and central French Guiana, as well as work on the bryophyte flora of southernmost Chile in collaboration with John Engel of the Field Museum. This broad field experience contributed substantially to his understanding of morphological variation in mosses.
Buck has also played an important role in scientific publishing. He has served as scientific liaison to the New York Botanical Garden Press and as Editor of the Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, and has been involved editorially with Tropical Bryology and Nova Hedwigia. In March 2005, he became editor of The Bryologist.
Beyond research and publishing, Buck has been active in bryological and lichenological education and conservation. He was a principal organizer of the Tuckerman Lichen Workshops, designed to bring amateur and professional lichenologists together, and helped establish a comparable series of Howard Crum moss workshops. He has also contributed to local conservation initiatives in New York State through the Town of Kent Conservation Advisory Committee and the Putnam County Land Trust.
