Conversations with Australian scientists

Dorothy Hill (1907–1997) was a pioneering Australian geologist who became the first woman to receive a gold medal for outstanding graduate at the University of Queensland and later the first female graduate from that university to earn a PhD at Cambridge, where she researched Carboniferous corals. She went on to have a distinguished career as a researcher and academic, serving at CSIR, lecturing at the University of Queensland, contributing to the war effort, and ultimately becoming the first female President of the Australian Academy of Science in 1970. Interviewed by Dr John R. Cole (toward a history of the University of Queensland).

Henry George Burger was born in Vienna, Austria in 1933. Burger completed his secondary schooling at Xavier College in 1950. He then began his compulsory National Service in 1951 before beginning a medical degree. Burger graduated with an MBBS from the University of Melbourne (1956), winning eleven of the twelve prizes on offer. After graduation, Burger worked as a resident medical officer (1957-58) and then registrar (1959) at St Vincent's Hospital.

Robert McCredie May was born on 8 January 1938, in Sydney, Australia. He spent a solitary childhood playing puzzles and problem solving games. May attended Woollahra Primary School and Sydney Boys High School (1948–1952). There he became a champion in the school debating team and was greatly influenced by several excellent teachers, especially in science.

Professor Athel Beckwith was a pioneering Australian organic chemist renowned for his research on the structure and behavior of organic free radicals, earning international recognition. His life story reflects a blend of scientific brilliance and resilience, from overcoming severe childhood illness to shaping modern radical chemistry and stereoelectronic theory, while maintaining deep interests in music, education, and social issues. Interviewed by Professor Bob Crompton in 2003.

Barry Marshall, born in Kalgoorlie in 1951, earned his medical degree from the University of Western Australia in 1974 and later worked at several Perth hospitals, where he began researching stomach bacteria with Dr. Robin Warren. His groundbreaking discovery in 1984 that Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcers earned him and Warren the Nobel Prize in 2005. Interviewed by Dr Norman Swan in 2008.

Professor Bernhard Neumann earned a D Phil from Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität in Berlin in 1932. He completed a PhD in mathematics at Cambridge University in 1935.

Professor Brian Anderson was born in Sydney, Australia in 1941. He attended the University Sydney graduating with a degree in both engineering and mathematics. Professor Anderson received a PhD from Stanford University in the mid–1960s and stayed on as a faculty member before returning to Australia in 1967. He worked as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Newcastle until 1982 when he moved to the Australian National University in Canberra to found a new Department of Systems Engineering within the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. In 1994 Professor Anderson oversaw the establishment of the Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering and was the School’s Director until 2002. Between 1998 and 2002, Professor Anderson was President of the Australian Academy of Science. From 2003–06, he was Chief Scientist of the organisation National Information Communication Technology Australia (NICTA). Professor Anderson continues his passion for research in his role as Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. Interviewed by Professor Neville Fletcher in 2008.

Brian Schmidt was born in 1967 in Montana, USA. In 1989 he received a BSc in physics and a BSc in astronomy from the University of Arizona. He went to Harvard University for graduate work and received a PhD in astronomy in 1993. His thesis research was into Type II supernovae, expanding photospheres and extragalactic distance.

Charles developed an early fascination with biology through beetle collecting and inspiring teachers, which led him to study agriculture for its broad scientific scope and eventual focus on ecology. His career advanced from applied entomology to influential work on population regulation and later philosophical explorations of science, evolution, and the interplay between objective and subjective understanding of life. Interviewed by Professor Rick Shine in 2008.

Cheryl Praeger was born in Toowoomba, Queensland in 1948. In 1970 she received a BSc Hons from the University of Queensland, having concentrated on mathematics. Praeger was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to Oxford University where she studied group theory under Dr Peter Neumann, receiving a MSc in 1972 and a DPhil in 1974. She returned to Australia in 1973 to take up a position as a research fellow in mathematics at the Australian National University.