Geoffrey H. Bourne

1909-1988

 

            Geoffrey H. Bourne was a researcher, educator, editor and author best known for his research on nutrition and primates. As a researcher, he worked as a biologist and biochemist in England at various universities. As an educator, Geoffrey taught at the University of London and at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. As an editor and author, he wrote numerous books and editorials on the nutrition and dietary habits of primates.

            Geoffrey H. Bourne was born in Perth, Western Australia on November 17, 1909. He gained his education from two well-known universities. Geoffrey earned various degrees from Western Australia University from 1930 through 1935 and earned a degree in physiology from Oxford University in 1943. He had hobbies and interests in gem cutting and polishing, running, water skiing and boating. Geoffrey also was involved throughout his life in many biological, zoological and anatomical societies.

            Geoffrey’s career spanned fifty-five years starting as a biologist at the Australian Institute of Anatomy, Canberra, from 1933 through 1935. He was a biochemist for the Commonwealth of Australia Advisory Council on Nutrition from 1935 through 1937. From 1938 through 1941, Geoffrey was at Oxford University as a Biet Memorial Fellow in medical research. While earning a degree at Oxford he was a demonstrator in physiology from 1941-1944 and 1946 –1947.

            During the period he matriculated at Oxford, he was a Mackenzie-Mackinnon Research Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians in London, England. In 1941 - 1944 he attended the Royal College of Surgeons in England. Geoffrey was a histology research analyst at the London Hospital Medical College from 1947 - 1957.  In 1957, he decided to relocate to the United States and settled in Atlanta, Georgia. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States five years later. Once in the United States, he worked as an anatomy professor at Emory University and was chairman of the anatomy department at Emory University from 1957 – 1962. He was also the director of Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center from 1962 until his death in 1988.

            Geoffrey wrote many books. As a writer, he wrote The Mammalian Adrenal Gland (1949), Vitamin C in the Animal Cell (1957), and Non-Human Primates and Medical Research (1974) just to mention a few. As an editor, Geoffrey contributed too many articles and publications such as Physiological and Pathological Aging (1961), Human and Veterinary Nutrition (1977), and Sociological and Medical Aspects of Nutrition (1988), just to mention few.

            Geoffrey H. Bourne is well noted for his research and writings on the physiology and nutrition of primates. He has made great strides on the studies of primates.  He died on July 19, 1988. 

References:

“Geoffrey Howard Bourne,” in Contemporary Authors. (A profile of the author’s life and works) http://web3.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/248/940/71777881w3/purl=rc1_CA_0_H1000010765&dyn=3!xrn_1_0_H1000010765?sw_aep=mnamsumank.  

Written by: Andy Paulson, 2004.