Fellows' biographical memoirs

Professor Scott Sloan AO FAA FTSE FRS was a geotechnical engineer and internationally renowned expert in soil stability analysis who pioneered new methods to predict the collapse states of geostructures.

Dr Sefton Hamann FAA was an internationally recognised chemist who studied how pressure transforms materials. He helped invent Australia's counterfeit-resistant polymer banknotes and their security features.

Sever Sternhell was a prominent figure in Australian organic chemistry, academia and public life for more than forty years.

Shirley Jeffrey was a pioneer in oceanographic research, identifying chlorophyll c, and was a worldwide leader in the application of pigment methods to quantify phytoplankton as the foundation of the oceanic food supply.

Professor Spencer Smith-White was a botanist who pioneered the study of cell physiology in Australian plants.

Professor Stephen Angyal OBE FAA was a world authority on carbohydrate chemistry. He was known for his discoveries on inositol, international collaboration and leadership at UNSW.

Stuart Ross Taylor made fundamental contributions toward understanding the composition and evolution of the Moon and Earth, the origin of tektites and solar system evolution.

Professor Stuart Butler FAA was a physicist who made made major discoveries about nuclear reactions. He led Australia's atomic energy research, and spearheaded efforts to explain science to everyday Australians.

This short memoir of Sir Sydney Sunderland is based on autobiographical information assembled by Sir Sydney, on a number of informal discussions the author had with him during the last five years of his life, and on the more accessible public documentation of his many activities associated with the University of Melbourne and the Federal and State Governments. In these notes I am more concerned with providing a picture of the kind of man Sydney Sunderland was, his science, and his contributions to Australian universities and to the community, than with presenting exhaustive detail of his many achievements.

Professor Thomas Room FAA FRS was a mathematician who shaped Australian geometry and education, contributed wartime codebreaking, and influenced generations through leadership at the University of Sydney.