Cannon, Lester Robert Glen (1940 - )

Summary

Lester Cannon worked on trematodes in fish, ascaridoid worms on fish and molluscs, the Crown of Thorns Starfish and other parasites before being appointed to the Queensland Museum as Curator of Lower Invertebrates. He was the only Curator in any Australian museum with parasitological training. As curator Cannon built up the parasitology collections such that the Queensland Museum now has one of the world's most significant such collections. In 1995 he negotiated for the WHO's International Reference Centre for Avian Haematazoa to be deposited at the Museum. Other collections transferred to Brisbane during Cannon's tenure include that of the School of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, the University of Sydney, and of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. He was highly successful in encouraging international experts to visit the Queensland Museum to study these collections. Cannon was instrumental in the development of the Australian Society for Parasitology Information on Collections (ASPIC), the database of Australian parasitology collections. In his research Cannon described one new family, 15 new genera and many new species. The turbellarian sub-family Cannoninae Faubel & Rohde was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1950

Life event - Family migrated to Australia

1965

Education - BSc (Hons), University of Queensland

1970

Education - PhD, University of Toronto, Canada

1970 - 1971

Career position - Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.

1971 - 1973

Career position - Queen's Fellowship in marine science, Department Parasitology, University of Queensland

1976 - 2003

Career position - Curator of Lower Invertebrates (later Senior Curator: Worms), Queensland Museum

1977 - 1979

Career position - Treasurer, Great Barrier Reef Committee

1991

Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Biology

1996

Career position - Convenor, 8th International Symposium of the Biology of Turbellaria, Brisbane

1999

Award - Fellow, Australian Society for Parasitology

2003

Life event - Retired

2004

Award - Queensland Museum Medal

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Angus, B. M., 'The study of turbellarians (Platyhelminthes) at the Queensland Museum', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 53 (1) (2007), 157-85. Details
• Angus, B. M.; Cannon, L. G. R.; and Adlard, R. D., 'Parasitology and the Queensland Museum, with Biographical Notes on Collectors', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Nature, 53 (2007), 1-156. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q22108094. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/62260069. Details
• 'Cannon, L R G (19400904-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-576023. Details