Fellows' biographical memoirs

Edward George Bowen was one of the most dynamic and influential of the wartime generation of British physicists. Having completed his doctorate under Professor E.V. Appleton at King's College, London, he was recruited by Robert Watson-Watt in 1935 and played an important part in the early development of radar in Britain.

Edward Holbrook Derrick was born at Blackwood, Victoria, on 18 September 1898. He was a fourth-generation Australian, with a solidly Methodist lineage. Two paternal great-grandparents, Jehu Derrick and his wife, and their four children (Enoch, Elijah, Joseph, Mary) migrated to Victoria on three different ships between 1852 and 1855, and a maternal great-grandfather, Reverend Edward Sweetman, had settled in Melbourne as a Wesleyan minister in 1840.

Edward (Ted) Norman Maslen was born at Kalgoorlie on 8 August 1935 to William Michael Maslen and Nellie Victoria Maslen (née Detez). His mother used to say that, even as a youngster, Ted always got into things and you didn't know what he would be up to next, indicative of his inquiring mind and superabundant energy.

Edwin James George Pitman was born in Melbourne on 29 October 1897 and died at Kingston near Hobart on 21 July 1993. His father, Edwin Edward Pitman, was born at Morecombe, Whitchurch in the county of Dorset on 7 May 1862, and his mother, Ann Ungley (née Hooks) at Marylebone on 10 January 1865; they met on the ship to Australia, married and settled in Melbourne. The father worked for a firm making prime movers and other machinery.

With the death of Sir Ernest Titterton on 9 February 1990, Australian has lost one of its most controversial scientists. Well known because of his forthright and uncompromising views on the subjects of nuclear weapons and nuclear power and because he 'pushed the button' for the world's first nuclear weapon, he was highly regarded by some and hated by others.

With the death of Frank Macfarlane Burnet on 31 August 1985, Australia lost its greatest biologist. His experimental work on bacteriophages and animal viruses, especially influenza virus, resulted in major discoveries concerning their nature and replication, and he was a pioneer in the application of ecological principles to viral diseases. He was a Foundation Fellow and, from 1965 to 1969, President of the Australian Academy of Science.

Geoffrey Ivan Opat, Professor of Experi­mental Physics at the University of Mel­bourne, died suddenly at home on 7 March 2002, at the age of 66. He was one of Australia’s most versatile and highly respected physicists, scholars and teachers and his death came as a profound shock to the staff of the University of Melbourne and to the physics community in Australia.

Geoffrey Malcolm Badger was Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Adelaide from 1955 to 1964 and, after serving briefly as a member of the CSIRO Executive, Vice-Chancellor from 1967 to 1977. Elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1960, he served on the Council and was President of the Academy from 1974 to 1978. He was President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1965 and Chairman of the Australian Science and Technology Council (ASTEC) from 1977 to 1982. He was admitted to the order of Australia (AO) in 1975 and knighted in 1979.

Graeme Caughley studied the interactions between large mammalian herbivores and the environments they occupy. The pattern of population growth that can be predicted theoretically from such a relationship is both complex and variable. He argued that the dynamics of mammalian herbivore populations are comprehensible only in terms of an interactive relationship between the herbivores and vegetation. He further argued that efficient management of such systems requires an understanding of the underlying mechanisms whereby the animals react to the plants and in turn the plants react dynamically to the effects of grazing.

Gregory Maxwell (‘Max’) Kelly (1930–2007) was educated at the University of Sydney (BSc 1951 with First Class Honours, University Medal for Mathematics, Barker Prize, and James King of Irrawang Travelling Scholarship) and the University of Cambridge (BA 1953 with First Class Honours and two Wright’s Prizes; Rayleigh Prize, 1955; PhD 1957).