All ANU theses digitised – the 1960s
To celebrate the digitisation of all ANU theses, we are looking at a selection of theses available through the Open Research repository.
Let's look at some ANU theses from the 1960s!
1960
Igor de Racheqiltz was a historian and philologist specialising in the political and cultural history of China and Mongolia. His thesis is on Yeh-lu Ch'u-ts'ai, who was one of Genghis Khan’s chief advisors. He published a number of works, including ANU Press title Joro’s Youth with co-author Li Narangoa.
Patrick O’Farrell was a celebrated Australian historian best known for his work on the Roman Catholic Church in Australia and the history of the Irish in Australia and New Zealand.
1961
Dr Gwendolyn Woodroofe was a notable Australian biological scientist. She is best known for her trailblazing work with Professor Frank Fenner into virological investigations of myxomatosis – the virus to control rabbits. In her honour, ANU has established the Gwendolyn Woodroofe PhD Scholarship in the Biological Sciences.
Professor Emeritus Ronald Crocombe was a notable scholar in Pacific Studies, often described as “the father of Pacific Studies”. He spent his long career researching the societies and organisations of the Pacific, and cultivated hundreds of Pacific writers and scholars.
Eugene Kamenka was an Australian political philosopher and Marxist scholar who made major contributions to scholarship and intellectual conversation. His thesis on the ethical foundations of Marxism is one of his best-known works.
1962
John ‘Jack’ Caldwell was a leading Australian demographer, and his work in the field of demographic and health transition is noted for its continued impact on demographic teaching, research and policy.
Robert Webster is a virologist, whose discoveries on avian influenza are directly responsible for the method of human influenza vaccination that is commonly used today.
1963
Diane Barwick was an anthropologist, historian and activist. She was fundamental in helping change the way we think about Indigenous Australians, and much of her career was dedicated to improving the lives of Aboriginal peoples. She was one of the founders of the Aboriginal History journal, and its first editor.
Warren Ewens is an Australian mathematician, whose research is focused on population genetics. He is noted for introducing ‘Ewens’s sampling formula’ which describes probabilities in population genetics.
1964
Rodney Jory is an Australian physicist. He is noted for establishing the National Youth Science Forum, an organisation that runs programs aimed at encouraging young people to pursue their passion for science.
Alice Erh-Soon Tay was an Australian academic lawyer and scholar. She was president of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission between 1998 and 2003. Every year ANU holds the annual Alice Tay Lecture in Law and Human Rights, named in her honour.
1965
Jillian Roe was an Australian historian and academic. She is best known for writing the definitive biography of Australian writer Miles Franklin, Her brilliant career : the life of Stella Miles Franklin.
Professor Rodolfo Llinásis an incredibly prolific neuroscientist whose work has shaped the world’s understanding of neuroscience and the human brain. He studied his PhD at ANU under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles.
Dr Cheong Choong Kong is a businessman, best known as the CEO of Singapore Airlines from 1996 to 2003. He was named as ‘Asia’s Businessman of the Year’ in 1998 by Fortune Magazine.
1966
Dr Patricia Woolley is a zoologist, with a special interest in dasyurid marsupials in both Australia and Papua New Guinea. In 1992, she discovered the existence of the Julia Creek dunnart, a species believed to be extinct. A small carnivorous marsupial found in Western Australia Pseudantechinus woolleyae, also known as Woolley’s pseudantechinus, is named in recognition of her contribution to the study of dasyurid marsupials.
Murray Ian Hill Brooker was an Australian botanist, recognised as the leading authority on the genus Eucalyptus. His work on eucalyptus was prolific, and we have a number of his titles in the Hancock Library. Eucalyptus brookeriana, commonly known as Brooker’s gum, was named in his honour.
Emeritus Professor Bruce Chappell was a distinguished Australian geologist, who made significant contributions to the study of granites. His career at ANU spanned more than 30 years. The Bruce Chappell and Allan White PhD Scholarship provides students with the opportunity to further their field and laboratory skills in Earth Sciences at ANU.
Martha Rutledge is a research, known for her contributions to The Australian Dictionary of Biography, produced by the National Centre of Biography at ANU. She was a member of the staff from 1967-2002, researching, editing and rewriting thousands of entries.
1967
Peter Coutts was an Australian archaeologist, known for improving and preserving the knowledge of Aboriginal heritage and archaeology through his work at the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Office.
Ronald Ekers in an Australian radio astronomer who was Foundation Director of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. As President of the International Astronomical Union from 2006-2008, Ron was responsible for the new definition of a planet and the subsequent reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet.
Professor Chander Kanta Gupta was a Canadian mathematician, best known for her research in abstract algebra and group theory. She was a world leader in the study of automorphisms in varieties of groups and algebras.
1968
Professor Anthony Minson is a virologist known for his pioneering work on vaccines and his study of the biology of human and animal viruses, in particular the herpes viruses.
Associate Professor Victor Gostin is an award-winning Australian geologist. Gostin discovered a 580-million-year-old meteor crash site in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, which was the first known occurrence of its kind. Main-belt asteroid 3640 Gostin was discovered in 1985 by astronomers C. and E. Shoemaker, and named in honour of Gostin.
Richard Butler is an Australian diplomat who was a public servant in many capacities, including the Australian Ambassador to the United Nations from 1992-97 and the Governor of Tasmania in 2003-04.
1969
Chirayu Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya (จิรายุ อิศรางกูร ณ อยุธยา) is a Thai economist and court official. King Bhumibol appointed him Director-General of the Crown Property Bureau, where he resided from 1987 until 2018.
Stephen Fitzgerald is an Australian diplomat who held the position of Australian Ambassador to China between 1973 and 1976.
Emeritus Professor Richard Deane Terrell is an econometrician and former Vice-Chancellor at ANU. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002 for service to higher education, and was noted for establishing international links between Australian and overseas universities.
Sing-wu ‘Sidney’ Wang worked as the chief librarian of the Orientalia Section of the National Library of Australia between 1964 and 1985. During this time Sing-wu built the collection significantly from 40,000 to 330,000 volumes. The Wang Collection at the NLA contains about 4,000 texts, with a focus on Chinese history, geography and biography.
You can search and browse to find a wealth of research in the ANU Library theses collection.
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