Richard "Rick" Speare (2 August 1947 – 5 June 2016) was an Australian

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

veterinary surgeon Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics (bones, joints, muscles), soft tissue surgery (skin, body cavities, cardiovascular system, GI/urogenital/ ...

. He is best known for his research on

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

diseases A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that ar ...

, particularly his work on

chytridiomycosis Chytridiomycosis ( ) is an infectious disease in amphibians, caused by the chytrid fungi ''Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'' and ''Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans''. Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or extincti ...

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

Research career

Speare worked clinically as both a

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and a

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

. He joined

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

in 1988 as a

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

, and was appointed an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

in 1991. His research covered a suite of diseases, including paramphistomid

trematodes Trematoda is a class of flatworms known as flukes. They are obligate internal parasites with a complex life cycle requiring at least two hosts. The intermediate host, in which asexual reproduction occurs, is usually a snail. The definitive host ...

of the

agile wallaby The agile wallaby (''Notamacropus agilis''), also known as the sandy wallaby, is a species of wallaby found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It is the most common wallaby in north Australia. The agile wallaby is a sandy colour, beco ...

scabies Scabies (; also sometimes known as the seven-year itch) is a contagious skin infestation by the mite ''Sarcoptes scabiei''. The most common symptoms are severe itchiness and a pimple-like rash. Occasionally, tiny burrows may appear on the skin ...

head lice The head louse (''Pediculus humanus capitis'') is an obligate ectoparasite of humans. Head lice are wingless insects that spend their entire lives on the human scalp and feeding exclusively on human blood. Humans are the only known hosts of thi ...

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, and

Australian bat lyssavirus ''Australian bat lyssavirus'' (''ABLV''), originally named ''Pteropid lyssavirus'' (''PLV''), is a zoonotic virus closely related to the rabies virus. It was first identified in a 5-month-old juvenile black flying fox (''Pteropus alecto'') col ...

. However, he is best known for his work on amphibian diseases such as

salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...

and

ranavirus ''Ranavirus'' is a genus of viruses, in the family ''Iridoviridae''. There are six other genus, genera of viruses within the family ''Iridoviridae'', but ''Ranavirus'' is the only one that includes viruses that are infectious to amphibians and ...

es in

cane toads The cane toad (''Rhinella marina''), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania ...

, ''

Mucor amphibiorum ''Mucor amphibiorum'' is a fungus which causes ulcers on the platypus, which can be secondarily infected and potentially fatal. It can also reduce the ability to regulate body temperature. It is currently limited to Tasmania and was first seen i ...

'' in the

Australian green tree frog The Australian green tree frog (''Ranoidea caerulea''), also known as simply green tree frog in Australia, White's tree frog, or dumpy tree frog, is a species of tree frog native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in th ...

, and, most notably,

. Speare completed his PhD on the helminth parasite ''Strongyloides'' in 1986. He published an important book chapter on the morphology of ''Strongyloides'' spp. in "Strogyloidiasis: A Major Roundworm Infection of Man", edited by David Grove (1989). Speare performed significant work on the public health control of human strongyloidiasis caused by ''Strongyloides stercoralis'', particularly in

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

communities. He was the founder of the Australian National Working Group on

Strongyloidiasis Strongyloidiasis is a human parasitic disease caused by the nematode called ''Strongyloides stercoralis'', or sometimes the closely related ''S. fülleborni''. These helminths belong to a group of nematodes called roundworms. These intestinal worm ...

. Speare was Director of the JCU School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from 2009 to 2012 and taught numerous subjects in the University's Masters of Public Health (Tropical Medicine) program, including Human Parasitology. He also undertook a guest lecturing role at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 2005, Speare and two colleagues infected themselves with

hookworms Hookworms are intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with poor access to adequate water, sanitation, an ...

to study the body's response to the parasites.Julie Robotham (2005
"Professor's resident hookers generate a gut reaction"
''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', 18 October 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2016. Speare was instrumental in founding the Atoifi Health Research Group in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

, to help improve public health in the region."Emeritus Professor Richard (Rick) Speare AM"
Retrieved 22 June 2016.

Retirement and death

Speare retired from

in 2012, and was made a member of the Order of Australia in the same year. He remained an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

and continued to publish research. He was also a director of the private company Tropical Health Solutions Pty Ltd, whose aims were to "improve health in the tropics through undertaking applied research to generate evidence for decisions and through building research capacity in local researchers.""Prof Rick Speare"
Tropical Health Solutions. Retrieved 22 June 2016."Who we are"
Tropical Health Solutions. Retrieved 22 June 2016. Speare died in a car accident in the

Atherton Tablelands The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River. It was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tinar ...

on 5 June 2016."Vale Emeritus Professor Rick Speare AM, PhD, MBBS(Hons), BVSc(Hons), DVSc, FAFPHM, FACTM, MANZCVS"
James Cook University. Retrieved 22 June 2016.Grace Mason (2016
"Partner of Atherton Tablelands crash driver charged with drug driving"
''

The Cairns Post ''The Cairns Post'' is a major News Corporation newspaper in Far North Queensland, Australia, that exclusively serves the Cairns area. It has daily coverage on local, state, national and world news, plus a wide range of sections and liftouts c ...

'', 11 June 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016. He was survived by his wife Kerry, three sons, two daughters and five grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speare, Richard 1947 births 2016 deaths Academic staff of James Cook University Australian tropical physicians Australian veterinarians Male veterinarians Presidents of the Australian Medical Association