Alan Burges

{{Short description|Australian botanist (1911–2002)}} {{distinguish|Alan Burgess}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Norman Alan Burges''' CBE (5 August 1911 – 4 October 2002), was an Australian botanist who became the first vice-chancellor of the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

==Life== He was born 5 August 1911, in East Maitland, New South Wales, and took his first degree and MSc at the University of Sydney, then studied for his PhD in mycology<ref>{{cite book|title=Where the Truth Lies: Franz Moewus and the Origins of Molecular Biology |author= Jan Sapp| year=1990| publisher=Cambridge University Press| page=211|isbn= 9780521367516| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rDCaJ25KRAC&dq=alan+burges+university+sydney&pg=PA211}}</ref> at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After a short period as a Research Fellow at Emmanuel, at the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force serving in Bomber Command.<ref name=gg>[https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.obituaries/rhOQK9DKaRs obituary at Google Groups] </ref>

After the war he returned to Australia and in 1947 became professor of botany at the University of Sydney, and later dean of the Faculty of Science and a Fellow of Senate there.<ref>[http://sydney.edu.au/senate/fellows1850on.shtml University of Sydney Fellows of Senate]</ref> he also acted as the honorary general secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science during that period.<ref name=gg/>

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<ref>[http://www.liv.ac.uk/commsec/calendar/University%20Chairs%20and%20their%20Holders%20Past%20and%20Present%202011-12.pdf University of Liverpool Chairs and their Holders]{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Subsequently he became acting vice-chancellor (1964–5) and pro-vice chancellor (1965–66) there.<ref name=gg/> He served as president of the British Ecological Society 1958-1959<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2267 | doi=10.2307/2267 | jstor=2267 | title=Time and Size as Factors in Ecology | last1=Burges | first1=Alan | journal=Journal of Animal Ecology | date=1960 | volume=29 | issue=1 | pages=1–14 | bibcode=1960JAnEc..29....1B | url-access=subscription }}</ref> He was one of the four long-term co-editors of Flora Europaea Project from 1956.

In 1966 he was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of the New University of Ulster 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 (1978–81).<ref name=gg/>

He was appointed CBE in 1980.<ref>[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/48059/supplements/289 London Gazette January 1980]</ref>

==Publications== *{{cite book| first=Alan| last =Burges| title= Micro-Organisms in the Soil|publisher=Hutchinson|year = 1958}} *{{cite book| first1=Alan| last1 =Burges| first2=Frank| last2=Raw| title= Soil Biology| year=1967| publisher=Academic Press}}

==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== <references/>

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