Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth

Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth (9 October 1905 in Birmingham – 25 October 1998 in Derby) was a British mycologist and scientific historian. He was the older brother of Ruth Ainsworth.

Education and work
Ainsworth received his doctorate in Biology from the University of London in 1934. From the 1930s to 1960s, he studied and wrote on fungi including their medical uses. Later, he wrote on the history of the field with An Introduction to the History of Mycology (1976), An Introduction to the History of Plant Pathology (1981), and An Introduction to the History of Medical and Veterinary Mycology in 1986.

In 1962 botanists Augusto Chaves Batista and Raffaele Ciferri circumscribed a genus of fungi (family Chaetothyriaceae) named Ainsworthia and named in Geoffrey Ainsworth's honour.

Awards

 * 1980 Linnean Medal, shared with Roy Crowson