Vale Dr David Ratkowsky

From the Tasmanian Fungi Facebook site:

It is with much heartfelt sadness we announce the passing of Dr David Ratkowsky.
David is the coauthor of our very prized and loved Tasmanian Field Guide books and the Fungiflip.
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 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. He has provided advice and support to many postgraduate students , researchers  helping with collaborating, advice,opinions and expertise helping TIA researchers on a broad range of topics for a very long time.
David will be very missed, many of us within this group had the utmost pleasure of spending time in the field with David, and know 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 of us.

 

If you would like to share your memories of David and add your own tribute, please contact alumni@csiro.au