Ian Clunies Ross

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Sir William Ian Clunies Ross CMG (22 February 189920 June 1959) was an Australian

veterinary scientist Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

. He has been described as the 'architect' of Australia's scientific boom, for his stewardship of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

), the Australian scientific organisation.

who settled with his family and crew on

Cocos (Keeling) Islands ) , anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''" , song_type = , song = , image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , map_caption = ...

in 1826-7 and proclaimed a kingdom. He married Janet Leslie Carter on 6 October 1927, in Sydney, Australia. The couple had three sons, Anthony, Adrian and David.

Education

Clunies Ross was educated at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1912–1916) and in 1917 he entered the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, in the Agriculture Faculty, and transferred to

Veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

Science at the beginning of 1918, graduating with second class honours in 1920. His father passed away in 1914, and his brothers Egerton and Rob Clunies Ross died in WWI, killed in action and from pneumonic influenza respectively.

Veterinary career

In 1921, Clunies Ross was given a temporary lectureship in veterinary anatomy, the following year he was made a Fellow of

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for ...

, allowing him to a travel overseas. He spent a year working on animal

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson h ...

s at the

Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology The Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology was a biological research institute in the University of Cambridge, UK, situated on the Downing Site and founded in response to an appeal by the Quick Professor by a $150 000 gift from Mr & Mrs ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and the School of Tropical Medicine in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He also spent time 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, mainly in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

, where he looked at methods of field control of parasitic diseases. When he returned to Sydney he set up a veterinary practice, lectured at the University and continued his own research on hydatid

(''

Echinococcus granulosus ''Echinococcus granulosus,'' also called the hydatid worm, hyper tape-worm or dog tapeworm, is a cyclophyllid cestode that dwells in the small intestine of canids as an adult, but which has important intermediate hosts such as livestock and hu ...

''), the liver fluke ('' Fasciola hepatica''), and the dog-tick ('' Ixodes holocyclus''). He developed an

immunization Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-s ...

for dogs to protect against the dog-tick.

CSIR

In 1926 Clunies Ross was appointed parasitologist to the newly established Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and was funded to continue research at the Sydney University Veterinary School. On 6 October 1927, Ian married English Honours graduate Janet Carter at the Catholic Apostolic Church, Redfern. They had three sons: Anthony, Adrian and David. By mid-1931, three other researchers were working with him, and in November 1931 the team moved into CSIR's new McMaster Animal Health Laboratory, Clunies Ross was appointed as the Officer-in-Charge of the laboratory. In 1928, his thesis on the hydatid parasite was accepted by the University of Sydney for the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Science. Work at the McMaster Laboratory on the control of

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...

liver-fluke, made a significant improvement to animal health and the returns from agriculture in the 1930s.

Science administration

Following his time at the McMaster Laboratory, Clunies Ross spent times in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and he was the Australian representative at the

International Wool Secretariat The International Wool Secretariat (IWS) was formed in 1937 to promote the sale of wool on behalf of woolgrowers and review research carried out by independent bodies such as the Wool Industries' Research Association at Torridon, Headingley Lane, L ...

from 1937 to 1940. He enjoyed this administrative role. He also served as a member of Australia's Delegation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...

Assembly in 1938. He and his family returned to Australia when

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out, he returned to the Veterinary school at the University of Sydney. He was president of the

Australian Institute of International Affairs The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) is an Australian research institute and think tank which focuses on International relations. It publishes the '' Australian Journal of International Affairs''. It is one of the oldest act ...

from 1941 to 1945. He was a notable member of the

Australian Veterinary Association The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) is a not-for-profit association representing more than 6000 Australian veterinarians working in private practice, government, industry, and academia. The AVA was mooted before the First World War but no ...

. He was a vocal commentator on international affairs throughout the remainder of his career.

CSIRO

In 1943, Clunies Ross was appointed Director of Scientific Personnel in the Commonwealth Directorate of Manpower and also Adviser on the Pastoral Industry to the Department of War Organization of Industry. He held these positions until 1945 while continuing work connected with his university position. At the end of the war he left the university to assist the CSIR in planning

and

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

-textile research. In 1946 he was appointed a full-time member of the CSIR Executive Committee, which was situated in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. He served as the executive officer of the CSIR until 1949 when it was renamed the CSIRO. He was chairman of the CSIRO until his death in 1959. During this time he oversaw the release of

myxomatosis Myxomatosis is a disease caused by ''Myxoma virus'', a poxvirus in the genus '' Leporipoxvirus''. The natural hosts are tapeti (''Sylvilagus brasiliensis'') in South and Central America, and brush rabbits (''Sylvilagus bachmani'') in North ...

for

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

control in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. In his retirement he was president of the Melbourne

Wallaby Club The Wallaby Club is a private walking club in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), which was established in 1894. The club is based on ''good fellowship, talking and an appreciation of both the natural and built environments''. Membership is by invi ...

1954 – 1955. While in his role at the CSIRO Clunies Ross came into conflict with pioneering

radio astronomer Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming ...

Ruby Payne-Scott Ruby Violet Payne-Scott, BSc (Phys) MSc DipEd (Syd) (28 May 1912 – 25 May 1981) was an Australian pioneer in radiophysics and radio astronomy, and was one of two Antipodean women pioneers in radio astronomy and radio physics at the end of the ...

over the role of women in the organization, and her role in particular. The two met in person to discuss the disparity in pay and working conditions between male and female employees of CSIRO, but this did not result in change to the status quo. When Payne-Scott's marriage and pregnancy were revealed, the two had a hostile exchange of letters, and CSIRO consequently deprived her permanent employee status and pension funds.

Later years and legacy

In 1954, Clunies Ross was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

and appointed CMG, and made a Foundation Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soc ...

. Clunies Ross died of atherosclerotic heart disease on 20 June 1959 in Melbourne, and is buried in Box Hill cemetery. The career of Ian Clunies Ross is widely commemorated in Australia. The Australian $50 paper bank note issued in 1973 celebrated Ian Clunies Ross on one side, and

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role ...

on the other. The National Science Centre in

Parkville, Victoria Parkville is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Merri-bek, M ...

was renamed as Clunies Ross House in 1968, and decorated with a mural by

Robert Ingpen Robert Roger Ingpen AM, FRSA (born 13 October 1936) is an Australian graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. For his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal i ...

celebrating Clunies Ross' career.

Honours

*Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

(1 January 1954) as Chairman of the CSIRO. *

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

(10 June 1954) as Chairman of the CSIRO.CLUNIES-ROSS, Ian
itsanhonour.gov.au

Namesakes

*Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Award. *Clunies Ross Street in

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, Australia. *Clunies Ross Street in

Prospect, New South Wales Prospect is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Prospect is located 32 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western S ...

, Australia. *Clunies Ross Court in Brisbane Technology Park, Eight Mile Plains, Queensland, Australia. *Clunies Ross Award or ATSE Clunies Ross Award from 1959. *Clunies Ross House at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

. *Ian Clunies Ross lecture theatre in the J.D.Stewart Building, School of Veterinary Science,

References

Bibliography

*O'Dea, C. 1997. ''Ian Clunies Ross – a biography''. Hyland House, South Melbourne *Australian Academy of Science Biography – Ian Clunies Ros

External links

Clunies Ross Foundation

Clunies Ross - a man of science (1962)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clunies Ross, Ian 1899 births 1959 deaths Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian Knights Bachelor Australian parasitologists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science People educated at Newington College