Geoffrey Charles Bratt (8 January 1931 – 16 October 1978) was an Australian chemist and lichenologist.

Life and career

Bratt was born in Hobart, Tasmania. In 1952, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in applied chemistry from the University of Tasmania. 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 (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

in London to start a

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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, and published several patents regarding this and the purification and recovery of other metals. As a result of his lifelong interest in bushwalking, 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

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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 eigh ...

to join an expedition to Patagonia 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 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 sheet of paper (called ...

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

collections Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collection ...

from numerous bushwalking trips in Tasmania. After suffering kidney failure 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 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 have been named to honour Bratt. These include ''

Cladonia enantia ''Cladonia'' is a genus of moss-like lichens in the family Cladoniaceae. They are the primary food source for reindeer/caribou. ''Cladonia'' species are of economic importance to reindeer-herders, such as the Sami in Scandinavia or the N ...

'' var. ''brattii'' ; '' Menegazzia brattii'' ; '' Parmelia brattii'' ; ''

Pseudocyphellaria brattii ''Pseudocyphellaria brattii'' is a species of foliose lichen in the family Peltigeraceae. It was described as new to science in 1997 by lichenologists David John Galloway and Gintaras Kantvilas. The type specimen was collected along Mt. Dun ...

'' ; ''

Rinodina brattii ''Rinodina'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Physciaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains about 265 species. It is hypothesized that a few saxicolous species common to dry regions of western North America, s ...

'' ; and '' Vouauxiomyces brattii'' .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratt, Geoffrey Charles 1931 births 1978 deaths Australian chemists Australian lichenologists People from Hobart University of Tasmania alumni Alumni of Imperial College London