Jo Bossanyi obituary

My friend Jo Bossanyi, who has died aged 96, was an environmental scientist and lecturer whose approach to teaching was driven by his belief that a well-educated public would be key to addressing the alarming degradation of the natural world.

Jo was born in Lubeck, northern Germany, the only child of Ervin Bossanyi, a celebrated Hungarian stained glass artist, and Wilma (nee Maasz). The family fled from Nazi Germany to London in 1934, when Jo was 10, without a word of English. Four years later he won a scholarship to Merchant Taylors' school in Hertfordshire, and from there went in 1943 to St John's College, Oxford, also on a scholarship, to read zoology.