Geoffrey H. Beale was a Royal Society professor, based in the Genetics Department, University of Edinburgh, until his retirement in 1976. He received his Ph.D. in 1938 from Imperial College, University of London, and on moving to Edinburgh developed a major research group working on the genetics of the free-living protozoan organism Paramecium. In 1965 he established the Protozoan Genetics Unit in Edinburgh and initiated research on genetics of the malaria parasite Plasmodium, work which has continued there to the present day.