John Harrison Burnett

Sir John Harrison Burnett (21 January 1922 – 22 July 2007) was a British botanist and mycologist, who served as the Principal and Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh University from 1979 to 1987.

Life

He was born in Paisley the son of Rev. T. Harrison Burnett of Paisley Abbey. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath then studied Botany at Merton College, Oxford.^[1]

His studies were interupted by the Second World War and from 1942 he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). He served protecting the Atlantic convoys and in the Mediterranean during the Siege of Malta. He was Mentioned in Dispatches. He later served as a Royal Marine commando.^[2]

He resumed studies in 1946 and graduated in 1947. He won the Christopher Welch Research Scholarship and gained his doctorate (PhD) in 1953 and began lecturing at Liverpool University. In 1955 he became Professor of Botany at St Andrews University and served as Dean of the Science Faculty 1958 to 1960. From 1961 to 1968 he was Professor at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, from 1968 to 1970 at Glasgow University and in 1970 returned to Oxford University as Professor of Rural Economy.^[3]

Margaret Thatcher called him her "favourite dissident scientist" and knighted him in 1987.

From 2000 to 2007 he ran the National Biodiversity Network which he had helped to found.

He died on 22 July 2007.

Publication

• Fundamentals of Mycology (1968)
• Fungal Populations and Species (2003)

Family

In 1945 he married Margaret Bishop. They had two sons.

References

External links

• Dalyell, Tam (27 July 2007). "Obituary: Sir John Burnett". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 November 2010.
• Buczacki, Stefan (January 2011). "Burnett, Sir John Harrison (1922–2007)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98918. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)