Conversations with Australian scientists

Dr TJ Higgins interviewed by Professor Hans Bachor in 2021. Dr TJ Higgins is a plant biotechnologist with background training in agricultural science. He strongly advocates for effective science communication and regularly discusses gene technology in public forums.

Dr Yvonne Aitken received a doctorate in agricultural science from the University of Melbourne, and continued to work there throughout her career. Her research centred on how plant species adapt to climate through the differing flowering responses of early and late varieties and how this in turn affects the growing period (ie, days from sowing to flower initiation, to first flower and to ripe seed). Interviewed by Ms Nessy Allen in 2001.

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).

Gregg Suaning interviewed by Ms Alison Leigh in 2001. Gregg Suaning was born in 1963 in San Francisco, USA. He studied engineering at California State University (Chico) and received a BSc in 1986. In 1988 he received an MSc in mechanical engineering from California State University (San Jose).

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.

Natasha Hendrick interviewed by Ms Marian Heard in 2001. Natasha Hendrick received a Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons) in geophysics from the University of Queensland. After this she worked in the geophysics research group at Oxford University for 12 months and was involved with the investigation of fault mapping using seismic wave-guides in the North Sea.

Professor Andrew Cole interviewed by Professor Donald Watts 15 October 2010. Andrew Reginald Howard (Andy) Cole was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1924. He qualified for a place at Perth's only selective school, Perth Modern School, in 1937. After finishing secondary school in 1941, Cole was awarded a government university exhibition to study at the University of Western Australia (1942-46).

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.