Biographical entry Burnet, Frank Macfarlane (1899 - 1985)

Summary

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne 1944-1966. In 1960 he (with P. Medawar) was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. His work influenced the later developments of DNA sequencing.

Details

Events

1922

Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (BS) completed at the University of Melbourne

1924

Education - Doctor of Medicine (MD) received from the University of Melbourne

1925 - 1927

Career position - Beit Memorial Fellowship received from the Lister Institute in London

1928

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at the University of London

1928 - 1931

Career position - Bacteriologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)

1932 - 1933

Career position - National Institute of Medical Research funded work in London

1934 - 1943

Career position - Assistant Director of WEHI

1935

Award - Stewart Prize received from the British Medical Association

1938

Award - Walter Burfitt Prize received from the Royal Society of New South Wales

1939

Award - Cilento Medal received from the Australian Institute of Anatomy

1942

Award - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

1944 - 1965

Career position - Director of WEHI

1947

Award - Royal Medal received from the Royal Society

1951

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt cr)

1953

Award - Lasker Award received from the American Public Health Association

1953

Award - Elizabeth II Coronation Medal received

1953

Award - Charles Mickle Fellowship received from the University of Toronto, Canada

1954

Award - Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1954

Award - Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences

1954

Award - James Cook Medal received from the Royal Society of New South Wales

1954

Award - Von Behring Prize for 1952 received from the University of Marburg

1957

Award - President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1957

Award - Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science

1958

Award - Galen Medal received from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London

1958

Award - Member of the Order of Merit (OM)

1959

Award - Matthew Flinders Medal received from the Australian Academy of Science

1959

Award - Copley Medal received from the Royal Society

1960

Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine received

1960

Award - Honorary member of the Royal Society of New Zealand

1961

Award - Second Order of the Rising Sun (with Double Rays) received

1962

Award - New York University Medal received

1962

Award - ANZAAS Mueller Medal received (Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science)

1963

Award - James Spence Medal received from the British Paediatric Association

1965 - 1969

Award - President of the Australian Academy of Science

1966 - 1977

Career position - Writer and elder statesman of science at the University of Melbourne

1967

Award - Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene Medal received

1967

Award - Silver Medal received from the l'Institut de Microbiologie et d'Hygiene de l'Université de Montreal, Canada

1969

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)

1971

Award - First International Congress of Immunology Award received

1973

Award - Distinguished Service Award received from the International Association of Allergy

1977

Award - Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal received

1978

Award - Knight of the Order of Australia (AK)

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Frank Macfarlane Burnet - Records, 1924 - 1976, MS 098; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
• Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, c. 1936 - c. 1940, MS 052; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Frank Macfarlane Burnet - Records, 1880 - 1986, 89/34; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science Exhibitions

• Australasian Science, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/journal.htm. Details
• Evans, Joanne; McCarthy, Gavan; Stephens, Robin, Centenaries of Australian Science, Discovery and Endeavour: Celebrating Australian Science, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, AustehcWeb, Melbourne, 4 August 1999, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/cent/. Details
• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Burnet, Frank Macfarlane, Changing Patterns an Atypical Autobiography, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1968, 282 pp. Details
• Burnet, Macfarlane, Endurance of Life: the Implication of Genetics for Human Life, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1978, 230 pp. Details
• Burnet, Macfarlane, Sir, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1915-1965, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1971, 193 pp. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Manhal, Oscar; O'Sullivan, Lisa; Sherratt, Tim, A Guide to the Records of Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian Science Archives Project, Melbourne, 1993, 156 pp. Details
• Sexton, Christopher, The Seeds of Time: the Life of Sir Macfarlane Burnet, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992, 301 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Beale, R, 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet', in Australia's Nobel Laureates - Adventures in Innovation, ABIE Australian Business and Investment Explorer, Sydney, 2004, pp. 44-53. Details
• Burnet, Frank Macfarlane, 'Charles Halliley Kellaway (1889-1952), Medical Scientist', in Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983, pp. 546-547. Details
• Burnet, Frank Macfarlane, 'The Clonal Selection Theory af Acquired Immunity', in Debra Jan Bibel (ed.), Milestones in Immunology: A Historical Exploration, Science Tech, London, 1988, pp. 185-187. Details
• Burnet, Frank Macfarlane; Fenner, Frank, 'The Production of Antibodies', in Debra Jan Bibel (ed.), Milestones in Immunology: A Historical Exploration, Science Tech, London, 1988, pp. 181-184. Details
• Mazumdar, Pauline M. H., 'Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 1899-1985', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. Details
• Nossal, G. J. V., 'Burnet, Sir Frank Macfarlane (1899-1985), Medical Scientist', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2007, pp. 160-164. Also available at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/burnet-sir-frank-macfarlane-mac-12267. Details
• Park, Hyung Wook, 'Burnet, Frank Macfarlane', in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Koertge, Noretta, ed., vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit , 2008, pp. 454-459 . Details

Journal Articles

• Anderson, Warwick, 'The Military Spur to Australian Medical Research', Health and History, vol. 15, no. 1, 2013, pp. 80-103. Details
• Anderson, Warwick and Mackay, Ian R., 'Fashioning the Immunological Self: the Biological Individuality of F. Macfarlane Burnet', Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 47, no. 1, 2014, pp. 147-75. Details
• Burnet, F. M., 'Changes of twenty-five years in the outlook on infectious diseases', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 1939, no. 1, 1939, pp. 23-8. Details
• Burnet, Frank Macfarlane, 'David Orme Masson', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, vol. 25, 1958, pp. 530-532. Details
• Crust, Eileen; Tauber, Alfred A., 'Selfhood, Immunity, and the Biological Imagination: TheThought of Frank Macfarlane Burnet', Biology & Philosophy, vol. 15, no. 4, 2000, pp. 509-533. Details
• Fenner, F., 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 1899-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 7, no. 1, 1987, pp. 39-77. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9870710039.htm. Details
• Fenner, F. J., 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 3 September 1899 - 31 August 1985, elected F.R.S. 1942', Biographical Memoirs Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 33, 1987, pp. 101-62. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Frank Macfarlane Burnet', Uni News, vol. 12, no. 15, 2003, p. 4. Details
• Gault, E. W., 'Cameron, Burnet and Willis - three Australian pathologists', Indian Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, vol. 14, 1971, pp. 53-67. Details
• Mackay, I. R., 'The 'Burnet Era' of Immunology: Origins and Influence', Immunology and Cell Biology, vol. 69, no. 5, 1991, pp. 301-305. Details
• Mackay, I. R., 'Burnet Oration: Auto-immunity, Paradigms of Burnet and Complexities of Today', Immunology and Cell Biology, vol. 70, 1992, pp. 159-171. Details
• Marchalonis, John J., 'Burnet and Nossal: the Impact of Immunology on the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute', Quarterly Review of Biology, vol. 69, 1994, pp. 53-67. Details
• Nossal, G. J. V., 'Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet (1899-1985)', Nature, vol. 317, 1985, p. 108. Details
• Nossal, Gustav, 'Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, OM, FRS, Nobel Laureate, 1899-1985', Eureka Street, vol. 9, no. 7, 1999, pp. 22-27. Details
• Park, Hyung Wook, 'Germs, Hosts, and the Origin of Frank MacFarlane Burnet's Concept of "Self" and "Tolerance", 1936-1949', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 61, no. 4, 2006, pp. 492-534. Details
• Roberts-Thomson, Peter J., Jackson, Michael W. and Gordon, Thomas P., 'A Seminal Monograph: Mackay and Burnet's Autoimmune Diseases', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 196, no. 1, 2012, pp. 74-6. Details
• Sankaran, N., 'Mutant Bacteriophages, Frank Macfarlane Burnet and the Changing Nature of 'Genespeak' in the 1930s', Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 43, 2010, pp. 571-599. Details
• Sankaran, N., 'The Pluripotent History of Immunology', Avant: the Journal of the Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 37-54. Details
• Sankaran, Neeraja, 'Stepping-stones to One-step Growth: Frank Macfarlane Burnet's Role in Elucidating the Viral Nature of the Bacteriophages', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 19, no. 1, 2008, pp. 83-100. Details
• Sankaran, Neeraja, 'Mutant Bacteriophages, Frank Macfarlane Burnet, and the Changing Nature of "Genespeak" in the 1930s', Journal of the History of Biology, 2009. Details
• Sankaran, Neeraja, 'Setting Patterns: the Atypical Choices That Shaped the Career of Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet in Twentieth-Century Australia', Korean Journal for the History of Science, vol. 35, 2013, pp. 343-64. Details
• Wood, I. J., 'Appreciation of Frank Macfarlane Burnet', Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, vol. 43, 1965, pp. 327-336. Details

Online Resources

• 'Burnet, Frank Macfarlane - Ms 98', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms098.html. Details
• 'The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960 'for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance'', in Nobel e-Museum, 1996, http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1960/index.html. Details
• 'Macfarlane Burnet - research on antibodies and the immune system', in The 1997 Australian Science Festival, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/other/asf_scientists.htm#macfarlane. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan, 'Career Outline', in Guide to the Records of Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian Science Archives Project, Melbourne, 1993, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/burn/FMBP001.htm. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Manhal, Oscar; O'Sullivan, Lisa; Tropea, Rachel; Sherratt, Tim, Guide to the Records of Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Original online edn, Australian Science Archives Project, Melbourne, 1993, republished 2001 at, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/burn/burn.htm. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Manhal, Oscar; O'Sullivan, Lisa; Tropea, Rachel; Sherratt, Tim, Frank Macfarlane Burnet Guide to Records, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/burn/burn.htm. Details
• 'Burnet, Macfarlane (18990903-19850831)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-595643. Details
• Sankaran, Neeraja, 'The Bacteriophage, its Role in Immunology: how Macfarlane Burnet's Phage Research Shaped his Scientific Style', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, vol. 41, 2010, pp. 367-75, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.10.012. Details
• Sherratt, Tim, 'From Beetles to a Nobel Prize: Macfarlane Burnet', Australasian Science, vol. Autumn, 1994, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_burnet.htm. Details
• The Nobel Foundation, 'Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet - Biography', in Nobel e-Museum, 1996, http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1960/burnet-bio.html. Details

See also

• Caro, D. E.; Martin, R. L., 'Leslie Harold Martin 1900-1983', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 7, no. 1, 1987, pp. 97-107. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9870710097.htm. Details
• Dahlitz, Ray, Secular who's who : a biographical directory of freethinkers, secularists, rationalists, humanists and others involved in Australia's secular movement from 1850 onwards, R. Dahlitz, Balwyn, Victoria, 1994, 192 pp. pp.84-85. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, 150 years, 150 stories: brief biographies of one hundred and fifty remarkable people associated with the University of Melbourne, Department of History, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2003, 168 pp. Details
• French, E. L. and Stewart, D.F., 'Lionel Bately Bull, 1889-1978', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 5, no. 4, 1983, pp. 90-110. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9830540090.htm. Details
• Norris, K. R., 'Ian Murray Mackerras 1898-1980', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 5, no. 2, 1981, pp. 98-114. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9810520098.htm. Details
• Rees, A. L. G., 'Ian William Wark 1899-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 6, no. 4, 1987, pp. 533-548. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9870640533.htm. Details