Members of INTECOL will have been saddened to learn the death of George A. Knox which occurred on 4th August 2008. He was 89 years old.
George spent his whole academic career at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, but was very prominent in international science. He was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Zoology in Canterbury in 1949, retiring as Professor and Head of Department in 1984. He was best known for his studies of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic marine biology. He had a long involvement with the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Science (SCAR) as the New Zealand delegate initially, serving latterly as Secretary and then President.
George played a leading role in both the establishment and running of INTECOL. He was a founding Board Member when INTECOL was established in 1967 in Montreux, Switzerland at the XVI General Assembly of IUBS. He was both Secretary General (1974-1978) and President (1978-1982), and continued on the Board for a further eight years, the first four as Past President and from 1986-1990 as an elected Board Member. George attended all the International Congresses of Ecology up to and including the Montreal Congress in 2005 when he was elected as an Honorary Member of INTECOL.
Other honours he achieved in his long and distinguished career included Membership of the Order of the British Empire (1985), Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2001), and the New Zealand Antarctic 50th Anniversary Award (2007) in recognition of his great contribution to Antarctic science.
He was a great friend and supporter of INTECOL. As well as being a distinguished scientist, George was a generous and kindly man who is sadly missed by his many INTECOL friends, not least by the Officers and Board.
Professor Rebecca R. Sharitz
Professor John A. Lee
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