Dr. David Punter was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England on May 26, 1936. He obtained a B.A. in Natural Science (Honours Botany) from Cambridge in 1959. He received a Ph.D. in Forest Pathology from Cambridge in 1964. In 1962 he became a research scientist with the Canadian Forestry Department. In 1968 he was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Botany Department of the University of Manitoba. He attained the rank of Associate Professor in 1974 and became a full Professor in 1986. He was the Head of the Department of Botany from 1993-2002. He was named a Senior Scholar upon his retirement in 2004. Two of his areas of expertise are reproductive biology and population genetics of dwarf mistletoe and pathology, ecology, and taxonomy of fungi associated with wild rice.

Dr. Punter has served on many boards and committees outside of his academic career. He was the President of the Manitoba Naturalist Society from 1972-1974. He was a member of the Museum of Man & Nature, Program Committee from 1979-1986. He has been a director with the Manitoba Model Forest since 1993. He was part of the reorganization of Manitoba Environmental Council from 1994-1999. He was a member of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee from 2003-2007 and part of the York Factory Preservation Team from 2007-2012. These are but a select few of the outreach projects that he was involved in.