Norman Alan Burges

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(5 August 1911 – 4 October 2002), was an Australian botanist who became the first vice-chancellor of the

New University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially a ...

in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

Life

He was born 5 August 1911, in

East Maitland, New South Wales East Maitland is a suburb in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. The traditional owners and custodians of the Maitland area are the Wonnarua people. Commercial areas Green Hills is a major commercial district called which includes the lar ...

, and took his first degree and MSc at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, then studied for his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, genetics, biochemistry, biochemical properties, and ethnomycology, use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, Edible ...

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

. After a short period as a Research Fellow at Emmanuel, at the outbreak of

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

in 1939 he joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

serving in

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

.obituary at Google Groups
After the war he returned to Australia and in 1947 became professor of botany at the

, and later dean of the Faculty of Science and a Fellow of Senate there. he also acted as the honorary general secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science during that period. In 1952 he returned to England to take the post of professor of botany (a chair endowed by and named after Holbrook Gaskell) at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

Subsequently he became acting vice-chancellor (1964–5) and pro-vice chancellor (1965–66) there. He served as president of the

British Ecological Society The British Ecological Society is a learned society in the field of ecology that was founded in 1913. It is the oldest ecological society in the world. The Society's original objective was "to promote and foster the study of Ecology in its widest ...

1958-1959 He was one of the four long-term co-editors of

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

Project from 1956. In 1966 he was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of the

in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, where he remained until retirement in 1976. Following retirement he took an active part in Ulster cultural affairs, for example as chairman, of the Ulster American Folk Park (1975–88) and of the Northern Ireland Committee of the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

(1978–81). He was appointed

in 1980.London Gazette January 1980
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Publications

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Personal life

In 1940 he married Florence Evelyn Moulton; they had three daughters, Judith, Jennifer and Anne. They also had a son Andrew who died as a young child. Alan died on 4 October 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burges, Alan 20th-century Australian botanists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 1911 births 2002 deaths Vice-chancellors of Ulster University Presidents of the British Ecological Society