Joseph Garnett Wood

Joseph Garnett Wood was born at Mitcham, South Australia, and educated at Unley High School before progressing to the Assay Department of the School of Mines and then the University of Adelaide where, in his first year, he won the John Bagot Scholarship and Medal in Botany. His first post in the University was as a junior demonstrator in Chemistry, before transferring to the Botany Department with the encouragement of Professor T.G.B. Osborn who needed assistance with the chemical side of his research.

Wood developed an early interest in the ecology of the arid regions of South Australia, and worked with Osborn to establish experimental plots at Koonamore Vegetation Reserve to investigate regenerating arid-zone flora in an overgrazed region.

At the age of 25, Wood was awarded an 1851 Research Scholarship and studied at Caius College, Cambridge, where he worked on photosynthesis under G. E. Briggs. He returned to Adelaide as a lecturer, and was appointed Professor in 1935 (the first native-born Professor of the subject in Australia).

Wood remained Professor at Adelaide for 25 years and played an increasing role in University administration. He also served on the Advisory Council of the C.S.I.R.O., was a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's advisory committee on arid-zone research, was Chairman of the Board of Standards of the Australian Journals of Scientific Research, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

In 1958 he became the first President of the Society of Plant Physiologists before dying suddenly on 8 December, 1959.