George Mackenzie Dunnet

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FIN FRSA (19 April 1928 – 11 September 1995) was a Scottish ornithologist and ecologist. He acted as an official advisor to the British government on ecological issues relating to the

North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and ...

industry, salmon farming and the link (if any) between

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...

s and

bovine tuberculosis Bovines ( subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship betw ...

. The latter resulted in a government report generally called the Dunnet Report. He was the first Director of the Culterty Field Station (studying a variety of ecological issues) at

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

Life

He was born at

Dunnet Dunnet is a village in Caithness, in the Highland (council area), Highland area of Scotland. It is within the Parish of Dunnet. Village The village centres on the A836 road, A836–B855 road junction. The A836 leads towards John o' Groats ...

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

on 19 April 1928 the son of John George Dunnet. He was raised in

Stuartfield Stuartfield is a small inland village in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated south of Old Deer. It was formerly known as New Crichie, and the name is still used by locals as illustrated by the village association website bei ...

and attended

Peterhead Academy Peterhead Academy is a six-year Comprehensive Community School in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is operated by Aberdeenshire Council. History The original building of Peterhead Academy was built in 1846 and was originally a boys only sc ...

. He then went to

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

graduating BSc in 1949. He worked briefly at the Bureau of Animal Populations in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

before undertaking a five-year study research trip to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

as part of the Wildlife Survey Section of CSIRO, mainly concentrating on flea types on various species. He identified over 40 new species and subspecies during this period. He was then invited to head the new Culterty Research Station at Aberdeen University under Prof

Vero Wynne-Edwards Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards, CBE, FRS, FRSE (4 July 1906 – 5 January 1997) was an English zoologist. He was best known for his advocacy of group selection, the theory that natural selection acts at the level of the group. Life He was born ...

in 1957. He then succeeded Wynne-Edwards as Regius Professor of Natural History in 1974, continuing this role until 1992. He later served as Dean of the Faculty of Science for the university. In 1970 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

, John N Black,

Julius Eggeling Hans Julius Eggeling (1842–1918) was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh from 1875 to 1914, second holder of its Regius Chair of Sanskrit, and Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Eggeling was translator and edito ...

, and Charles Gimingham. He won the Society's Neill Prize for the period 1987–89. He famously resigned from his role as principal (and sole) scientific advisor to

Scottish Natural Heritage NatureScot ( gd, NàdarAlba), which was formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for the country's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and ...

due to ongoing dissatisfaction with the SNH's lack of scientific input to their decision-making. He was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1994 New Year's Honours List. He died of a stroke whilst attending a conference in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

on 11 September 1995. The conference was debating the ecological effects of the proposed

Øresund Bridge The Öresund or Øresund Bridge ( da, Øresundsbroen ; sv, Öresundsbron ; hybrid name: ) is a combined railway and motorway bridge across the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is the longest in Europe with both roadway and rai ...

Positions of Note

*Chairman of the Salmon Advisory Committee 1986-1995 *Member of the Advisory Committee on Science to the

Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Northern ...

*Chairman of the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group (SOTEAG) *Chairman of the Review Team on Badgers and Bovine Tuberculosis

Publications

*''Fleas of British Mammals'' (1948)

Family

He married Margaret ("Mom") Thomson in 1953. They had one son and two daughters (one of whom died).

References

External links

*R.E. Lewis
Flea News 51: Obituaries
Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, December 1995 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunnet, George Mackenzie 1928 births 1995 deaths People educated at Peterhead Academy Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Scottish ornithologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Aberdeen 20th-century British zoologists People from Caithness People from Stuartfield