Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Gentilli, Joseph Hefetz (Italy-Australia 1912-2000)
climatology, geography

After escaping (he was Jewish) to Australia from Italy in 1939 just as war broke out, Gentilli was associated with the University of Western Australia for sixty years. There he built up an international reputation as a geographer, studying subjects ranging from cartography, migration and economic geography, to climatology, physiography, ecology and biogeography. Gentilli published hundreds of articles and more than a dozen books (the best known one probably being Climates of Australia and New Zealand) over his long career as a researcher and educator, and was an important influence on the professionalization of the field of geography in his adopted land.

--born in San Daniele del Friuli, Italy, on 13 March 1912.
--1929: accounting degree, Technical Institute, Udine, Italy
--1934-1935: junior lecturer, Geography Department, University of Florence
--1939: moves to Australia; appointed to lecturing position in statistics at the University of Western Australia
--1940: gives a series of extension lectures in geography
--1941: offers first course in economic geography
--1946: publishes his Australian Climates and Resources
--1949: publishes his "Foundations of Australian Bird Geography" in Emu
--1951: publishes his Physiographic Diagram of Australia, with R. W. Fairbridge
--1951-1952: president, Western Australian Naturalists' Club
--1971: edits and publishes his Climates of Australia and New Zealand
--1972: publishes his Australian Climate Patterns
--1981: awarded honorary D.Sc. by the University of Western Australia
--1988: receives honorary life membership in the Institute of Australian Geographers
--1993: receives the John Lewis gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australia Branch
--1996: made an Officer of the Order of Australia
--1997: retires from the University of Western Australia
--1998: receives the Griffith Taylor Medal of the Institute of Australian Geographers
--dies on 8 August 2000.