Robert (Bob) Crompton, a towering figure in low energy electron and ion physics in Australia, passed away in June 2022. He was known internationally for his seminal publications on swarm physics, atomic and molecular physics and gaseous electronics, and for his widely-read monograph with Sir Leonard Huxley on the subject of charged-particle transport. He was the recipient of many personal and professional accolades and awards for his contributions to science, science policy and the general community. Although born and educated in Adelaide, Crompton spent the majority of his long career at the Australian National University in Canberra in the Research School of Physics and Engineering

Warning: This article discusses blood collecting in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It also contains the image of an unnamed Aboriginal man who may be deceased.

It is not without justification that the collecting of blood for genetic analysis is frequently associated with race science, but it is not solely or inevitably so. This history of Robert Kirk, a British–Australian population geneticist, provides nuance to twentieth century blood science. Once problematic, Kirk’s legacy collection now returned to Indigenous control provides a promising future. Photograph: 01P-02-27, NCIG Archive, ANU, Canberra © Kirk family.

In 1966 the ‘marriage bar’ was removed for women working in the Commonwealth public service in Australia. During that year the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) was founded. We consider the changes in the diversity of astronomers working in Australia, including male/female ratios, since the formation of the ASA, and the development of gender equity strategies in astronomy. As well, we examine the experiences of Australian women astronomers and those of people from marginalised groups in astronomy. Photograph reproduced with permission from the IDEA ASA website.

Dr Ferdinand von Sommer (~1800–49) served as Western Australia’s first government geologist and had ‘Mount Sommer’, north of Perth, named after him. Ferdinand also left behind three exceptional maps of his surveying and prospecting activities (1847–8) as well as reports to the government that can be considered impressive for their time and context, even by today’s standards. His scientific endeavours are worth re-discovering. Photograph of the author is by Matt Jelonek.

Beyond helping us to identify birds, field guides sharpen our environmental awareness, deepen our connectedness to nature and foster a commitment to conservation. These facets of the field guide inspired the efforts of the leading American innovator of the genre, Roger Tory Peterson, as well as the Australian field guide authors who came under his influence in the 1950s and after. This article explains how Peterson helped shape Australian birding guides, and hence the relationship between birds and people in this country. It also recounts Peterson’s birdwatching adventures on his visits Down Under. Photograph courtesy of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute.

Australian astronomical research has changed drastically since the formation of the Astronomical Society of Australia in 1966. Here, we look at the changes in the context of the membership of the society and explore how the advent of new research facilities has led to changes in the number and geographical location of Australian astronomers. In particular, locating new radio telescopes in Western Australia has resulted in a more even spread of astronomers across the country. Photograph by Nick Lomb.

Acclimatisation—that is, the introduction of plants and animals to Australia from other parts of the world—is often seen as a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Focusing on wild bird species, this article argues, on the contrary, that acclimatisation continued well into the twentieth century. This article provides a cultural and political explanation for Australians’ belated turn against so-called ‘invasive species’ in the 1930s, ascribing this shift in attitudes to settler nationalism and xenophobia. Photograph by Alan Schmierer, via Wikimedia Commons.

Global movement of plants and plant products brings risk of pests including weeds, invertebrates, and plant pathogens. Australia’s adaptive biosecurity system continues to mitigate these risks, using plant quarantine and modern diagnostics to isolate, detect and diagnose exotic pathogens. Photograph by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

This article belongs to the collection: Plant Pathology in Australasia.

Peter Pringsheim, professor of physics at the University of Berlin, has a unique connection with Australia. His attendance at the 1914 conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Melbourne, coincided with the outbreak of World War 1, and he was interned as an enemy alien until July 1919. But with the support of key local scientists, Pringsheim used his internment to write a treatise on fluorescence and phosphorescence which established him as a world authority on this branch of atomic physics. Photograph: SP 421/4 4730 Peter Pringsheim, National Archives of Australia.

Dr Angus McEwan FAA FTSE who died on 5 September 2018, aged 81, was a renowned Australian fluid dynamicist, specialising in designing and conducting experimental studies in geophysical fluid dynamics, and providing outstanding leadership of national and international research programs in oceanography and meteorology. Image credit: Angus D. McEwan, personal communication.

David Albert Cooper AC (1949–2018) was an internationally renowned immunologist and HIV clinician who spearheaded Australia’s world-leading HIV response. In this article, his colleagues reflect on his contributions to HIV and infectious disease research, health policy, and the research institute he led for thirty-two years, the Kirby Institute.

Jeremy Pickett-Heaps was a biologist whose acute observational powers were fed by a deep fascination for how cells work; he had an affinity for the myriad diversity of algae and other protists in general and for what they could teach us about all cells. He made fundamental discoveries in plant cell division and green algal phylogeny that developed into studies on cell division in general and he mastered time-lapse micro-cinematography to document the dynamic lives of cells. The resultant movies and his enthusiastic teaching introduced many to the wonders of microscopic life. Photographer unknown.

Gretna Weste was a woman plant pathologist who pioneered research on dieback, a devastating new disease of forests in southern Australia, in the late twentieth century. Weste’s research was foundational in the recognition of dieback disease as a Key Threatening Process for Australia’s natural biodiversity in 2000. Her career illustrates the significant gender-based obstacles faced by women scientists in Australia, and the stoic strength demonstrated by Weste. Photographer unknown.

This paper is a biographical note on the life and achievements of Professor Gavin Brown. Gavin was a distinguished mathematician who became vice chancellor of both the University of Sydney and the University of Adelaide. He made a significant contribution to his subject area and to the Australian academic scene. Source: Australian Academy of Science archives.

This is the story of how the Australian Government has been protecting Australia’s remote northern coastline from biosecurity invasions from neighbouring countries. It is a story of boots on the ground plant health surveillance across Australia’s north and also over the horizon, in the countries that lie so close to our northern shore. Key to success has been collaborative field work overseas, with biosecurity scientists of Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Photograph by Kerry Trapnell.

After graduating in medicine at the University of Queensland, completing his PhD at the Kanematsu Institute in Sydney, and postdoctoral studies in Germany, in 1966 John Atherton Young he joined the department of physiology at the University of Sydney where his research on the physiology of epithelial ducts brought him international recognition as a leader in the field. He made significant contributions to university governance and professional societies and respected as a man of great culture, a witty conversationalist, a great scientist.

Professor Anthony (Tony) George Klein AM, FAA (1935–2021) was an outstanding physicist, university teacher, leader, mentor and science communicator. We recount Tony’s life from his childhood in wartime Romania through to his extended career as a professor of physics at the University of Melbourne. The memoir describes Tony Klein’s personal qualities, his major research contributions and collaborations in the field of neutron optics and neutron interferometry and his services to the scientific community. Image courtesy of Australian Academy of Science.

Banana bunchy top disease is the most serious viral disease of bananas in the world, and nearly wiped out the Australian banana industry in the early twentieth century. The impacts of the disease epidemic were hardest felt by veterans of World War 1, who moved to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales to create a subtropical fruit industry as part of the Soldier Settlement Scheme. This article describes the early history of the Australian banana industry, the introduction and spread of bunchy top disease, and efforts to develop a disease management plan. Photograph by Scot C. Nelson, University of Hawaiʻi.

This article belongs to the Special Issue: History of Plant Pathology in Australasia.

Late blight, ultimately shown to be caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, devastated potato crops in Ireland and other countries in Europe during the mid-late 1840s. In 1909 the disease was positively identified in Australia by the Queensland Vegetable Pathologist, Henry Tryon, who had compelling evidence that the source of the disease outbreaks was planting tubers from Tasmania. Growers and authorities in that state refused to believe the accusation but were soon proved wrong. Image credit: J. M. Berkeley (1846).