John Harrison Burnett

Sir John Harrison Burnett (21 January 1922 – 22 July 2007) was a British botanist and mycologist, who served as the principal and vice chancellor of Edinburgh University from 1979 to 1987.

Early life and education Burnett was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, the son of Rev. T. Harrison Burnett of Paisley Abbey. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath before going up to Merton College, Oxford to read botany in 1940.

His studies were interrupted by the Second World War and from 1942 he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). He served protecting the Atlantic convoys and in the Mediterranean during the Siege of Malta. He was Mentioned in Dispatches. He later served as a Royal Marine commando. In Yugoslavia, he spent time with Marshall Tito in a cave. While at Oxford he was a member of the Hebdomadal Council, the university's chief administrative body, from 1974 to 1979.

Margaret Thatcher called him her "favourite dissident scientist" and knighted him in 1987.

He was a member of the Nature Conservancy Council (1987–1989) serving as deputy chairman and acting chairman, and was instrumental in creating a Joint Nature Conservation Committee – to advise the newly established Country Agencies.

He was chairman, and an active leader of the newly formed Co-ordinating Commission for Biological Recording (1989–2003). From 2000 to 2005 he ran the National Biodiversity Network, which he had helped to found. The Maintenance of the Biosphere (1989) Surviving with the Biosphere (1993) Biological Recording in the UK: present practice and future developments (1996) Volume 1 Report, 145 pp. Summary Report, 27 pp. Fungal Populations and Species (2003)

Personal life In 1945 he married Margaret Bishop. They had two sons. He died on 22 July 2007.