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Three remarkable stories of science, dedication and discovery made for an interesting and well received exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery recently.

The exhibition, A Broader Vision: Macfarlane Burnet, Jean Macnamara, Ian Clunies Ross highlighted the way the Gallery approaches portraiture from the historical as well as artistic perspective.

The exhibition brought together portraits and personal memorabilia from the lives of three of Australia's most remarkable scientists - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Jean Macnamara and Ian Clunies Ross - all born in 1899.

A Broader Vision: Macfarlane Burnet, Jean Macnamara, Ian Clunies Ross was mounted in partnership with the Tall Poppy Program of the Australian Institute of Political Science.

In different ways each contributed to our collective knowledge of science, tackled wider social issues, and showed it was possible to have an international 'voice' while based in Australia.

Macfarlane Burnet spent his childhood in Terang, where his early drawings and notes on beetles hinted at his budding skills in the observation of nature.

After graduating in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1922, Burnet took up a residency at the Melbourne Hospital and worked in pathology at the nearby Walter and Eliza Hall Institute - where he soon decided his medical interests lay with research rather than patients.

After further study in London, Burnet returned to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1928, becoming Director in 1943. He focussed the work of the Institute first on virology and later immunology. From 1941 his own research was dominated by investigating the influenza virus. But it was for his parallel work in immunological tolerance and antibody production, dating back to 1928, that he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or [sic] Medicine in 1960.

In retirement Sir Macfarlane Burnet devoted his energies to 'human biology' in the broader sense, taking on numerous advisory appointments and was often sought as a lecturer and commentator on science and society.

Jean Macnamara graduated in medicine the same year as Burnet, winning exhibitions in surgery and anatomy. With high recommendations she was appointed resident at the Children's Hospital where she treated children with poliomyelitis. She and Burnet discovered that there was more than one strain of polio virus - acknowledged as an early step towards the development of the Salk vaccine.

A Rockefeller fellowship in 1931 enabled Macnamara to travel to North America. While there she met Richard Shope who was conducting experiments with myxomatosis. Having been born in the country she was deeply concerned about the havoc wreaked by rabbits. So in 1933 she took a cheap passage to London on a cattle ship to lobby Stanley Bruce, the Australian High Commissioner. This resulted in experiments near Cambridge which although successful were only the beginning of a long battle with the (then) CSIR and Australian authorities. Dame Jean, who was honoured with a DBE in 1935 for her paediatric orthopaedic work, used her influence to wage a long campaign through newspaper columns until 1951, when CSIRO tests near Albury finally succeeded. Millions of rabbits died and in the following year it was estimated the value of the Australian wool clip increased by £30 million.

Ian Clunies Ross also contributed to the protection of the pastoral industry, with his early research into the liver fluke in sheep. In 1929 he spent a year as a visiting scholar at the Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, which kindled his interest in Australia's engagement with Asia. Following his appointment as first Chairman of the newly established International Wool Secretariat in London, in 1938, he returned to take up the professorship in Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney. From 1949, until his death in 1959, he was the first Chairman of the newly constituted CSIRO. Although a respected scientist, it was as an administrator and communicator that Clunies Ross is most revered. He used his considerable charm and public speaking skills to promote those ideas he was most passionate about - international relations; the value of pure and applied science; and the establishment of federal funding for universities.

Upcoming exhibitions include: Recognitino:P Percy Leason's Aboriginal portraits and Arthur Boyd Portraits both running 12 Novebmber 1999 to 13 February 2000.

Contact

National Portrait Gallery, 02 6270 8288, email npg@dcita.gov.au or visit the Gallery online at www.portrait.gov.au or AIPS at www.tallpoppies@net.au

• Document ID: 11403 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 6:02pm