George Bornemissza
| George Francis Bornemissza | |
|---|---|
| Born | György Ferenc Bornemissza 11 January 1924 Baja, Hungary |
| Died | 10 April 2014 (aged 90) Australia |
| Nationality | Australian citizen |
| Fields | Entomology, Biology, Ecology, Agricultural Science |
| Institutions | University of Western Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, University of Tasmania |
| Alma mater | University of Innsbruck |
| Known for | The Australian Dung Beetle Project |
| Notable awards | Medal of the Order of Australia 2001 |
George Francis Bornemissza (born György Ferenc Bornemissza; 11 February 1924 – 10 April 2014) was a Hungarian-born entomologist and ecologist. He studied science at the University of Budapest before obtaining his PhD in zoology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria in 1950. At the end of that year he emigrated to Australia. There he first worked in the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia for 3 years, before pursuing a career with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Bornemissza is most noted for his work on the Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985) while working with CSIRO’s Division of Entomology. In 2001 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian entomology. Bornemissza has written several papers published in notable journals and books (see Publications) and has contributed an extensive collection of mounted beetle specimens to the Australian public.
Bornemissza was born in Baja, Hungary, to Katalin Bornemissza and Ferenc Bornemissza, an engineer. He began collecting and studying beetles in the forests around his hometown during his mid-teens and also dedicated much of his spare time to volunteering in museums and scientific institutions in Budapest.
After receiving his doctorate from the University of Innsbrück in Austria, Bornemissza fled central Europe to escape the post-World War II Soviet regimes and travelled to Western Australia, where he arrived on 31 December 1950. Six months after arriving on Australian shores, while working with the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia, he remarked upon the large number of old, dry cow dung pads that covered cattle grazing fields near Wooroloo, Western Australia and compared this to the relatively dung-free cattle fields of his native Hungary. In Hungary and elsewhere in the world, dung beetles have adapted to be able to roll and bury large, moist cattle dung pads but native Australian beetles, which co-evolved alongside the marsupials, were not able to utilise bovine dung, since cattle were only relatively recently introduced to Australia in the 1880s. Bornemissza hypothesised that the introduction of foreign dung beetle species that were able to roll and bury cattle dung pads would aid not only Australia’s soil fertility by recycling the dung nutrients back into the ground, but would also reduce the number of pestilent flies and parasitic worms which use the dung pads as a breeding ground. Bornemissza joined CSIRO in 1955 and continued to advocate his plan whilst he worked on a number of other projects and studies (see Publications). The Australian Dung Beetle Project finally secured funding from the Australian Meat Research Committee and commenced in 1965.
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