Geoffrey Charles Bratt (8 January 1931 – 16 October 1977) was an Australian chemist and lichenologist.

Life and career

Bratt was born in

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent (Tasmania), River Derwent, it is the southernmo ...

. In 1952, he earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

applied chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their com ...

from the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

. That year, he started working at the Electrolytic Zinc Company as a research scientist. He held this position for three years before leaving to enter the

Imperial College of Science Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in London to start a

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 ...

degree. He completed this in 1959 and thereafter returned to the Electrolytic Zinc Company, again as a research scientist; by the time of his death he was the Senior Principle Research Officer. He investigated methods of purification and electrodeposition of

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

, and published several

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s regarding this and the purification and recovery of other metals. As a result of his lifelong interest in

bushwalking A hike is a long, vigorous walking, walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer tim ...

, Bratt joined the Imperial College Exploring Society Karakorum Expedition conducted in 1957–58, the aim of which was to scale the world's second-highest mountain peak. Although the expedition did not climb this peak, they did manage to successfully climb K10. As a member of the British Glaciological Society he accepted an invitation from

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was e ...

to join an expedition to

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

in 1958–59. It was here that he met lichenologist

Peter Wilfred James Peter Wilfred James (1930–2014) was an English botanist and lichenologist. He was a pioneer in the study of lichens as environmental indicators, especially of atmospheric pollution. Early life and education Peter W. James grew up in Sutton Co ...

, who stimulated his interest in lichens. After returning to Australia, he set up a

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

in his home in West Moonah, and added many lichens to his

collections Collection or Collections may refer to: Computing * Collection (abstract data type), the abstract concept of collections in computer science * Collection (linking), the act of linkage editing in computing * Garbage collection (computing), autom ...

from numerous bushwalking trips in Tasmania. After suffering

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

in 1974, he had to forgo major expeditions, but he was able to spend more time with the specimens in his herbarium, and most of his lichen publications were published after that.

Memberships and awards

* member of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 1959 * life membership of the

Royal Society of Tasmania The Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) was formed in 1843. It was the first Royal Society outside the United Kingdom, and its mission was the advancement of knowledge. The work of the Royal Society of Tasmania includes: * Promoting Tasmanian hist ...

in 1965 * appointed Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Botany at the University of Tasmania in 1969 * Hofmann Prize for extractive metallurgy in 1971 (shared with R.W. Pickering)

Eponyms

Several lichen

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

have been named to honour Bratt. These include '' Cladonia enantia'' var. ''brattii'' ; '' Menegazzia brattii'' ; '' Parmelia brattii'' ; '' Pseudocyphellaria brattii'' ; '' Rinodina brattii'' ; and '' Vouauxiomyces brattii'' .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratt, Geoffrey Charles 1931 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Australian chemists Australian lichenologists People from Hobart University of Tasmania alumni Alumni of Imperial College London