Ronald Ian Lewis-Smith is a British bryologist and Antarctic plant ecologist. He joined the British Antarctic Survey in 1964 as a cryptogamic ecologist and later became Head of its Plant Biology Section. During a career spanning nearly four decades, he carried out extensive research throughout the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions, with particular emphasis on bryophyte and lichen ecology, phytogeography, plant colonisation and succession, and conservation. He is co-author, with Ryszard Ochyra and Halina Bednarek-Ochyra, of The Illustrated Moss Flora of Antarctica.
He retired from the British Antarctic Survey in 2002 but has continued to contribute to Antarctic botanical research. He was awarded the British Polar Medal in 1977 and a clasp in 2002.
Reference: portrait from Journal of BAS (British Antarctic Survey Club) 2017
