Botany at University College, Nottingham

Abstract

DR. C. G. C. CHESTERS has been recently appointed to the chair of botany at University College, Nottingham, in succession to Prof. T. A. Bennet-Clark. Prof. Chesters graduated in the University of Glasgow where he received his botanical training under the leadership of Prof. Bower and took up an appointment at Birmingham in 1927. From 1930 onwards, when he became lecturer, his energies were devoted mainly to the study of mycology, and he became reader in mycology in 1942. During this period, Prof. Chesters built up a flourishing school of mycological research. His chief mycological interests have been in the Pyrenomycetes and Phycomycetes. His work on British Pyrenomycetes, published in a series of papers from 1935 onwards, must rank as an important contribution to the study of the life-histories and taxonomy of the group and he is justly recognized as an authority in this field. More recently, Prof. Chesters has been experimenting with new methods of approach to the difficult problem of the study of the fungus flora of the soil, and he has designed special 'immersion tubes' whereby fungi can be directly isolated from the soil. Prof. Chesters' mycological activities are by no means confined to the university, for he is a prominent and active member of the British Mycological Society, serving as secretary during the period 1936–42 and becoming a vice-president in 1942.