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.