Charles Hipkin

Charles Hipkin, now retired, was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, Swansea University where his research centred on the  biochemistry of nitrogen assimilation in plants and  eukaryotic microorganisms, particularly microalgae and yeasts. He published extensively on these subjects in journals such as Nature, the Journal of Biochemistry and the Journal of General Microbiology and was a recipient of the university’s Distinguished Teacher Award. However, from an early age he had a passion for natural history and particularly for the wild plants of Britain and the alpine floras of Europe and western North America.

With his late wife, Hilary, he has mountaineered and botanised in the Alps, Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains and has recorded plants and fungi throughout Glamorgan and especially in Neath Port Talbot, an area of south Wales that had been largely ignored by other recorders. In recent years he has become interested in the natural history and recombinant ecology of conifer plantations, a topic on which he has written in British Wildlife.

He was responsible for organising and leading field courses for Biology undergraduate students during his time at Swansea University and he has led numerous plant and fungi based walks and courses for the general public over the last 40 years. He chairs the Neath Port Talbot Local Nature Partnership.