PathWay #13 - Text 15/8/07 6:52 PM Page 16 in profile A life of distinction MICROBIOLOGY MARVEL PROFESSOR FRANK FENNER IS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST VENERATED SCIENTISTS – AND A VERY HUMBLE MAN, FINDS MELISSA SWEET. fter a stellar career spanning seven or graces. Just a quiet and simple: Poxes – small, rodent Adecades, Professor Frank Fenner has “Fenner.” and rabbity begun the difficult task of packing up his If you didn’t know his pedigree, you office – almost 30 years after his official After the war, he worked alongside Sir would swear that the blue-eyed, white- retirement. Macfarlane Burnet at the Walter and Eliza haired gent shuffling down the corridor When Professor Fenner finally vacates Hall Institute of Medical Research in could be anyone’s grandfather. What his room at The John Curtin School of Melbourne, where he studied mousepox, gives him away is the affection and Medical Research in Canberra, as he a close relative of the smallpox virus. It respect that is so evident in the greetings intends to later this year, it will be the end was the beginning of a lifelong interest in from colleagues. of an era for Australian science and for pox viruses. one of its most revered figures. When awarded an honorary fellowship Much of his first 15 years at the ANU “I really have to go home and get of the Royal College of Pathologists of were absorbed by research into another things in order,” Professor Fenner Australasia (RCPA) earlier this year, the pox virus – myxomatosis. explains. citation noted that the award recognised This work, which contributed to the After all, he will be 93 in December not only Professor Fenner’s scientific and control of the rabbit plague that had and doesn’t expect to be able to continue medical contributions, but also the decimated the Australian countryside, is his current routine – rising at 5am, reading tenacity and humble nature of the man widely judged as one of his key the latest journals until 8am and then behind the work. achievements. driving to the Australian National When he arrived at the newly However, it was a single unorthodox University – for too much longer. established John Curtin School of experiment in 1951 which really caught the general public’s attention. Professor Fenner is widely admired, Medical Research in 1949, aged 34, not only because of the longevity of his Professor Fenner already had quite a In an effort to reassure those anxious career and the breadth of his reputation. about the safety of releasing achievements, but also because of his myxomatosis, Professor Fenner and two His work in controlling malaria among humility and decency. other scientists injected themselves with World War II troops had earned him the His name may be up in lights on the the virus. recognition of a Member of the Order of main avenue as you drive into Canberra – All they suffered was a slight the British Empire. just outside Fenner Hall, in fact – but reddening at the injection site. A Captain and then a Major in the none of the usual marks of celebrity are Professor Fenner’s work on apparent when you meet the man himself. Australian Army Medical Corps between myxomatosis also led him into the study When I buzz the security phone to 1940 and 1946, he developed an interest of the vaccinia virus, which was to prove gain entrance to his office building one in infectious diseases during service in such a useful background for the work on chilly Canberra morning, his response is Australia, Palestine, Egypt, New Guinea smallpox that later brought such typically low key, without a hint of any airs and Borneo. international acclaim. > 16_PATHWAY PathWay #13 - Text 15/8/07 6:52 PM Page 17 “I am temperamentally unable to do research without being personally involved, hands-on ANDREW CAMPBELL PHOTO CREDIT: at the bench” PATHWAY_17 PathWay #13 - Text 15/8/07 6:52 PM Page 18 “Everybody that lectures on allowed him to answer the critical call of American scientist and environmentalist his career – to assist the World Health credited with coining the maxim “think climate change has to end up Organization with ridding the world of globally, act locally”. on a hopeful note, so I try to smallpox transmission, a task requiring a Professor Fenner is known among grinding schedule of constant travel. colleagues as a cautious scientist, but he avoid giving lectures on it In a career noted for many awards has no hesitation in sharing his alarm because I find it very gloomy” and prizes, Professor Fenner says his about global warming and the failure of proudest moment came on 8 May, 1980, the United States and Australian when he stood before the World Health governments to respond appropriately. Assembly in Geneva, as chair of the “You couldn’t but be very concerned,” After becoming director of The John Global Commission for the Certification of he says. “Everybody that lectures on Curtin School in 1967, Professor Fenner Smallpox Eradication, and declared its climate change has to end up on a made a conscious decision to cease mission accomplished. hopeful note, so I try to avoid giving lectures on it because I find it very scientific research because he didn’t want “Everybody was delighted about it,” gloomy.” to do it through assistants or students. he recalls. “That was the great moment.” Professor Fenner is similarly upfront “I am temperamentally unable to do about sharing his political convictions. He research without being personally Not so quiet convictions has never voted for the conservative involved, hands-on at the bench,” he In latter decades, Professor Fenner’s parties, he says, preferring to support the once told a radio interviewer. focus turned to environmental issues, “underdog”. Instead, he concentrated on writing inspired by one of his great mentors, Nor has he been reticent about and other work. Serendipitously, this René Jules Dubos, a French-born digging into his pockets to support the causes close to his heart. After winning the prestigious Japan Prize in 1988 – sharing the ¥500 million bounty with two CV in brief others involved in smallpox eradication – PROFESSOR FRANK FENNER, AC, CMG, MBE, FAA, he established two endowment foundations, to help fund conferences on FRS, FRACP, FRCP the environment and medical research. Writing is another passion. 1983–present Visiting Fellow, John Curtin School of Medical He has published more than 300 Research scientific papers and written or 1977–80 Chairman, Global Commission for the Certification of contributed to 14 books, including a best- Smallpox Eradication, World Health Organization selling textbook, Medical Virology. He refers often to the role of both 1973–79 Director, Centre for Resource & Environmental Studies, ANU chance and his father in his successes, so it is no surprise that both feature in the 1967–73 Director, John Curtin School of Medical Research title of one of his most personally revealing books, Nature, Nurture and 1949–67 Professor of Microbiology, and Head of the Department of Chance: The Lives of Frank and Charles Microbiology, John Curtin School of Medical Research Fenner. It examines the similarities and differences between the lives and opportunities of the father and son. 2002 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Abiding passions 2000 Albert Einstein World Award for Science When the young Frank, an enthusiastic 1995 Copley Medal of The Royal Society collector of fossils, was contemplating a career as a geologist, his father 1989 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for service to suggested medicine would offer more medical science, public health and the environment opportunities. Charles Fenner, a teacher who 1988 Japan Prize for Preventive Medicine became a senior education administrator 1976 Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), in South Australia, was also a keen scientist and writer. And clearly an for medical research influential role model for his son. 1945 Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE, Military) Another central figure in Professor for work in malaria control Fenner’s life and work was his wife Bobbie, a nurse. 18_PATHWAY PathWay #13 - Text 15/8/07 6:52 PM Page 19 Family snap: Professor Fenner (second from right) with his parents and siblings They met at work at a hospital in Professor Jane Dahlstrom, Professor “Frank is an incredible example of Hughenden in central Queensland and of Anatomical Pathology at the Australian what one can do, post-65, by staying married in 1943, although much of the National University, recalls that she first active,” he says. first two years of their marriage were came to know Professor Fenner because Professor Fenner has no plans to hang spent apart while Fenner was posted to he was part of a group of scientists who up his hat when he moves his office back New Guinea. regularly played tennis next door to her to the home shared with his daughter He wrote to her at least once a day home. Marilyn. He hopes to devote more time to during their separation and was moved, As she grew to know him more, his beloved vegetable garden, whose many decades later, to discover she had bumping into him at various functions and produce is regularly shared with friends. kept all these notes, which he once meetings, she came to appreciate him, But he has no ambitions to fight described as “pretty torrid love letters”. both as a person and a scientist, and against the inevitable. After seeing his He found her reading them as she lay sick resolved to surprise him by nominating with inoperable cancer. good friend ‘Nugget’ Coombs debilitated him as an Honorary Fellow of the RCPA.