Professor Brajesh Singh FAA – elected a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America
Professor Xinghuo Yu FAA – awarded an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia
15 January 1932 – 1 July 2023
Professor John Pate was elected to the Academy in 1980 for his work on the carbon and nitrogen economy of legume plants. Born in England, he undertook his PhD in botany at Queen’s University Belfast while working as an assistant lecturer. In 1957 he moved to the University of Sydney for three years as a lecturer in botany before returning to lecture at Queen’s. In 1965 he obtained his DSc and became Reader in Botany at Queen’s, and then Personal Chair of Plant Physiology in 1970. Following a visiting fellowship at the University of Capetown in 1973, Professor Pate was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Botany at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He remained at UWA until his retirement in 2000.
Professor Pate was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985. He was awarded the Australian Minerals and Energy Foundation Award in 1997, the Centenary Medal in 2001, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from UWA in 2005, and was inducted into the WA Premier’s Science Hall of Fame in 2017. In 2023, Professor Pate was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) ‘for significant service to botany, and to tertiary education’. He generously gave his time to the Academy over many years.
16 Septemnber 1953 – 5 July 2023
Professor Bob Pressey was a pioneer in conservation planning and was elected to the Academy in 2010 for his innovative work in this area. Following the completion of his BSc(Hons) at the University of Sydney in 1975, and his Masters of Environmental Studies at Macquarie University in 1979, Professor Pressey worked for nine years as a private environmental consultant on wetlands conservation. In 1986 he accepted a position as a researcher with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service where he worked for 19 years in semi-arid and forest ecosystems. During this time he completed his PhD at UNSW on Requirements for a representative reserve system: a case study in the Western Division of New South Wales. In 2006 he was appointed Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Queensland for a short period, and the same year was a Governor of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia. Professor Pressey moved to James Cook University in 2007 as Professor in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, leading the Conservation Planning program.
Professor Pressey was awarded the Australia-India Senior Visiting Fellowship in 2012. In 2001 he received the USA Society for Conservation Biology’s Edward T. LaRoe III Award for translating principles of conservation biology into real-world conservation. He was awarded the Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research in 2002, the New South Wales Premier’s Award in 2004, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. He generously gave his time to the Academy.
Professor Pressey’s research and engagement profoundly influenced policy, practice and the collaborative development of conservation decisions in Australia and across the globe. He leaves a remarkable legacy and his work will live on through the many researchers and students he worked with and trained throughout his career.
11 March 1925 – 9 July 2023
Professor Tim Wall was elected to the Academy in 1971 for his contributions to the development of Algebra, in particular to group theory. In 1961, his conjecture ‘that the number of maximal subgroups of any given finite group is less than the group order’ was published. ‘Wall’s Conjecture’ inspired papers, workshops and lectures in the following decades.
Professor Wall was born in Adelaide and received his BSc in 1946 from the University of Adelaide. From 1949 to 1956 he lectured at universities in the United Kingdom, completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1952. He then returned to Australia to join the Department of Pure Mathematics at the University of Sydney, where he remained for the rest of his career. Professor Wall was President of the Australian Mathematical Society from 1970 to 1972. He was known for instinctively giving his ideas to his collaborators and younger colleagues.
Professor Wall gave his time generously to the Academy.
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
