Ratkowsky, David Allen   (1935 - 2025)

Born on 26 April 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, USA; died on 13 April, 2025 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

He was a statistician of international repute. He worked at CSIRO's seafood technology lab before joining the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in the early 1990's as an honorary researcher in the microbiology team.

David was a long-time friend and respected Life Member of the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club.

He was co-author of A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi and his contribution to the Club, to Tasmanian botany and to the scientific community is greatly valued.

David has had a long involvement with the natural history of Tasmania spanning over 20 plus years participating in over 1000 forays collecting,mapping and documenting macrofungi with his very close friend and colleague Dr Genevieve Gates on Mt Wellington and across many Tasmanian environments.

David has had many scientific papers on various aspects of Tasmanian macrofungi published as well as jointly with Genevieve.

He has provided advice and support to many postgraduate students and researchers, helping with collaborating, advice,opinions and expertise helping TIA researchers on a broad range of topics for a very long time.

He had a strong interest not only in the fungi but all aspects of the natural environment and was always willing to share his knowledge, answer questions all with good humour and patience.

He was a very genuine and generous man and, with his walking sticks, could keep up with the best.

Source: Extracted from:
https://alumni.csiro.au/vale-dr-david-ratkowsky/ - Vale Dr David Ratkowsky
the Tasmanian Fungi Facebook site
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q88847216 Australian microbiologist
https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/death-notices/ratkowsky-david-allen/6292807/
Portrait Photo: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Ratkowsky

Collecting localities for 'Ratkowsky, D.A.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 7,645 specimens