George Boyd 1926-1959

George Boyd came to UGA to be head of the Department of Zoology. During his time at UGA he would serve as Chairman of the Biological Sciences Division  (1940) which included the departments of zoology, botany, microbiology, biochemistry, and entomology, and Dean of the Graduate School (1943-1959). He was a strong supporter of research studies at UGA. Boyd saw the promotion of research as integral part of Graduate Studies and would serve as the first Director of Research in 1945.

“It may be that scientific research relating to the problems of industry has exceeded the needs of the day, but this cannot be said of fundamental biological research in the problems of health. The need for such research becomes increasingly more outstanding. I believe the University could make no greater contribution to the life of the state than to foster this phase of its work.” (Boyd, 1933-1934 Annual Report).

In addition to helping reorganize the Graduate School so that it would be on par with peer institutions, Boyd was pursuing the study of periodicity in malaria in birds and man. His work on avian malaria provided some of the earliest insights into how these parasites interact with their hosts. Even into the mid-1950s, Boyd’s research on avian malaria was “still considered a model piece of work.” (Athens Banner 6/26/55)

In 1936, he was elected as an AAAS Fellow. In 1945, he petitioned for a Sigma Xi chapter at UGA.

“There is a general lack of equipment and of library facilities for research but the impression is strong that a new era is about to dawn and that research at the university will become well established in a few years.” (R.P. Stephens – Mathematics “Research Work in Pure Science, University of Georgia, 1926″ [archived in the 1926 Annual Report that also mentions Boyd’s research on malaria parasites in birds.])

Boyd died in 1965 before the completion of the building bearing his name. It is fitting that, for a time at least, the Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center housed both the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research. In many reports to the president, Boyd decried the lack of sufficient library holdings as a hindrance to the advancement of scientific work at UGA, and so it is also an honor to him that the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library is connected to the Graduate Studies building.