Head and shoulders image of L.G. Saunders, Professor, Department of Biology.

Bio/historical note: Leslie Gale Saunders was born 3 December 1895 in London England. He attended Highgate Grammar School but emigrated to Canada (at 16) prior to completing his matriculation. He had been sent to Nova Scotia by his father to investigate fruit growing possibilities and subsequently entered the Truro Agricultural College. In January 1919 Saunders enrolled in Macdonald College, McGill University; by 1921 he had completed both a BSc and MSc, and was awarded the "1851 Exhibition Scholarship". This allowed him to enter the Molteno Institute for Medical Parasitology at Cambridge. In 1923, while at Cambridge, he was invited to join a private expedition to Brazil. He was granted a Ph.D. in 1924 and then joined the staff of the University of Saskatchewan the following year, where he was assigned to teach invertebrate zoology, entomology and parasitology. In 1927 Saunders spent the summer at the Pacific Biological Station at Departure Bay, Vancouver Island. In 1932, with budget restraints during the Depression, bachelors on staff at the U of S were asked to take a year off with three months' salary: and Saunders secured a teaching position at Hong Kong University for the fall session. Extremely well travelled, Saunders' academic career included research on tropical diseases in Central America for the United States government (1943); and a study cocao plants and midges in Costa Rica and the Phillipines (1956). Upon his retirement in 1961, Saunders was named Professor Emeritus. In addition to his reputation as a biologist, Saunders' work as a photographer brought him much praise and acclaim. He was elected Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of London and had work displayed in leading galleries in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Saunders died in Victoria in 1968.