Prof Frank Fenner passes

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, issued a statement about the passing of Professor Frank Fenner:

Emeritus Professor Frank Fenner was truly a distinguished Australian, a brilliant, generous and passionate researcher.

He devoted his life to working on the challenges of his time, including the impact of malaria on his fellow servicemen and women during World War II, the global eradication of smallpox and the control of rabbit populations in Australia.

His research career spanned an extraordinary breadth of fields - from malaria as an army doctor, to tuberculosis at the Rockefeller Institute in New York and his work in the emerging field of environmental science towards the end of his career.

Following his time at the Rockefeller Institute, he returned to Australia in 1949 to be the first Professor of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

He chaired the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication until 1979. After he retired as chairman he collaborated on an eight-year writing project to document the eradication program.

He was Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research before becoming founding Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Science at the ANU from 1973 to 1979.

At the John Curtin School, Professor Fenner was involved in broad-ranging research into the myxoma virus, used to tackle Australia’s rabbit problem from its microbiology to its genetic make-up.

His accolades include the Britannica Australia Award for Medicine, World Health Organization Medal, Japan Prize, Albert Einstein World Award for Science, 2002 Prime Minister's Science Prize, an MBE for his military service, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Companion of the Order of Australia and Fellowship of the Royal Society.

He was a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

My condolences go to his daughter Marilyn, his family and his many close friends and colleagues on his passing.