Tropical Forest Scientist: Francis S.P. Ng and FRIM 1964 - 1991

Trees are the largest, longest-lived and least understood of living things. The author led a scientific effort to document the 2830 species of trees of Peninsular Malaysia and carried out wide-ranging and unprecedented explorations on the growth, development and reproduction of tropical trees and forests. This book provides an integrated, comprehensive and otherwise unavailable overview of tropical trees and forests, and concise explanations of issues and concepts in tropical forest management.

This memoir is also about science in an ethnically and culturally complex developing country, from colonial handover, through a national Emergency, a hostile Confrontation with a neighbouring country and the separation of one of its component states. During this turbulent period, scientific research was done mostly in Government Research Institutes. It provides an inside view of one such Institute, and offers critical evaluations of scientific issues, research strategy, productivity, policy and organization at the individual, institutional and national levels.