P002300 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

All key entry types: Awards; Concepts; Corporate Bodies (Organisations); Cultural Artefacts; People; etc

These key entries are listed separately below with other indexes and lists.

 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 1997-06-30 human Rosanne Walker and Helen Cohn updated 2026-05-07 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P002300b.htm person Colless Donald Henry AACR2 24 August 1922 16 February 2012 Place of Birth Uralla, New South Wales, Australia Place of Death Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Entomologist Taxonomist Don Colless was an entomologist who was an expert in the taxonomy and biology of flies (Diptera). In over 130 papers and book chapters he published on 18 families of Diptera, including the descriptions of the families Perissommatidae and Axiniidae, 13 new genera and 120 species. For two decades, Colless was involved in research on mosquitoes and disease transmission in Borneo and New Guinea. He was also interested in theory and philosophy of taxonomy and classification, producing a number of influential critiques of cladistic theory and advocating a phenetic approach to the discovery of taxonomic groups. For 40 years Colless was a taxonomist with the CSIR Division of Economic Entomology (later CSIRO Division of Entomology), being Chief Curator of the Australian National Insect Collection between 1971 and 1977. 1942 1942 Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Sydney 1942 1945 Career position - Served with the Australian Malaria Control Unit and Australian Mobile Entomological Section, Australian Army 1947 1947 Education - Bachelor of Agricultural Science (BAgSc), University of Sydney 1947 1952 Career position - Research officer, CSIR Division of Economic Entomology 1952 1960 Career position - Lecturer, Department of Parasitology, University of Malaya, Singapore 1956 1956 Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Malaya 1960 1971 Career position - Taxonomist, Australian National Insect Collection 1963 1979 Career position - Member, Editorial Committee, Australian Journal of Zoology 1971 1977 Career position - Senior Research Officer, CSIRO Division of Entomology 1971 1977 Career position - Chief Curator, Australian National Insect Collection 1977 1987 Career position - Chief Research Officer, CSIRO Division of Entomology 1987 1987 Life event - Retired 1987 2012 Career position - Honorary Fellow, Australian National Insect Collection Woodhill, Anthony Reeve (1900 - 1965) CSIRO Division of Entomology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (1950 - )

Chief Research Officer 1977 - 1987

 Australian National Insect Collection, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (1962 - )

Chief Curator 1971 - 1977; Honorary Fellow 1987 - 2012

 Colless, Donald Henry

Trove

 'Colless, Donald Henry (Don)', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Colless, Donald Henry (Don) Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Journal Article: In Memoriam Willi Hennig Colless, D. H. In Memoriam Willi Hennig 1977 Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 16 1 6 Journal Article: Obituary - Donald Henry Colless 1922 - 2012 Yeates, David K.; and Cranston, Peter S. Obituary - Donald Henry Colless 1922 - 2012 2013 Zootaxa 3680 1 4-14 Book: A Rich and Diverse Fauna: the history of the Australian National Insect Collection 1926 - 1991 Upton, M. S. A Rich and Diverse Fauna: the history of the Australian National Insect Collection 1926 - 1991 Melbourne CSIRO Publishing 1997