Founded on Fact. The Autobiography of Geoff Baylis

2003

Private Collection

Auckland: Privately published

While at Auckland University Geoff Baylis (1913-2003) earned his MSc on the ecology of the mangrove Avicennia resinifera (now Avicennia marina subsp. Australasia). In 1936, a scholarship enabled Baylis to attend London Imperial College where he gained his PhD on fungal damage to germinating peas. In 1946, he was appointed Lecturer-in-Charge of Botany at Otago, taking over from the Rev. Dr J. E. Holloway. He became first Professor of Botany (1952) and was Head of the Department for 34 years, retiring in 1978.