George Mackenzie Dunnet, son of John G. Dunnet, Officer of the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, was born in Dunnet, Caithness, on 19 Apr 1928. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen, BSc, 1949, PhD, 1952, and was awarded an honorary DSc in 1984. From 1952 - 1958 he was employed as research officer with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, in Australia, but in 1958 returned to Scotland where he was appointed lecturer in the Department of Natural History, at the University of Aberdeen. He became senior lecturer there in 1966, Professor of Zoology in 1971, and Regius Professor of Natural History in 1974. A leading international figure in nature conservation, he was president of the British Ecological Society, chairman of ten influential committees, and a member of many other related environmental organisations. In 1986 he was awarded an OBE, and in 1991 a CBE for his services to the environment. He died on 11 Sept 1995. He was married to Margaret H. Thomson, (MA, Aberdeen) on 5 Jan 1953.
For further details see Aberdeen University Review, 56 (1995 - 1996), 425 - 426; and The Ythan papers, presented in honour of George Dunnet at the University of Aberdeen Department of Zoology, 27, 28 and 29 March 1992, ed, by M.L. Gorman (Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, Dept of Zoology, 1997).
From the guide to the Papers of Professor George M. Dunnet, 1950s - 1980s, (University of Aberdeen)
