George Petersen (biochemist)

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George Bouet Petersen (5 September 1933 – 11 July 2021) was a New Zealand biochemist, known as the father of DNA research in New Zealand. Born in Palmerston North, he attended Palmerston North Boys' High School and earned an MSc from the University of Otago in 1956. He then studied at the University of Oxford, where he received an MA and a DPhil. Petersen later worked at the University of Otago and mentored students such as Diana Hill. He married Patricia Jane Egerton Caughey in 1960, and they had four children. Petersen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1985 and was also a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. In 1997 he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community, and in 2003 he received the Rutherford Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. He died in Dunedin on 11 July 2021, aged 87.