Nationality Australia Role Ecologist Education University of London | Alma mater University of London Fields Ecology Name David Goodall | |
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Born 4 April 1914 (age 109)
Edmonton, London, England ( 1914-04-04 ) Known for Editor-in-Chief of the multivolume Ecosystems of the World
seminal papers on ecological gradient analysis | ||
Institutions Edith Cowan University | ||
David William Goodall (born 4 April 1914) is an Australian botanist and ecologist. He was influential in the early development of numerical methods in ecology, particularly the study of vegetation.
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Education
Goodall completed his Bachelor of Science degree in 1935 followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1941, both at the University of London (Imperial College of Science and Technology). His PhD research was conducted at East Malling Research Station in Kent on assimilation in the tomato plant.
Research and career
In 1948, he moved to Australia to become senior lecturer of botany at the University of Melbourne. 1952-1954, he served as reader in botany at the then University College of the Gold Coast (now University of Ghana). He received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Melbourne in 1953. He then returned to England to take the position as professor of agricultural botany at the University of Reading 1954–1956. From 1956 to 1967, he was a research scientist at various Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) divisions in Australia, then professor of biology at the University of California, USA, 1967–1968, and professor of systems ecology at Utah State University, USA 1968-1974. For the rest of his career, he was affiliated with CSIRO again, and retired in 1979.
As of December 2016 Goodall is active, an honorary research associate at the Centre for Ecosystem Management at Edith Cowan University and Editor-in-Chief of the series Ecosystems of the World. He is thought to be the oldest scientist still working in Australia, as of January 2016, followed by Dr Max Day, who was born on 21 December 1915.
Selected publications
Awards and honours
Goodall was promoted to doctor honoris causa at the Università degli Studí di Trieste, Italy, in 1990.
Goodall became a centenarian in April 2014. In the 2016 Australia Day Honours list Goodall was made a Member of the Order of Australia.