Chemistry in Australia: Growing Up, Down Under

Abstract

Australian chemistry can trace its origins to immigration from Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. The British tradition was maintained through the first half of the twentieth century by the research training undertaken in Britain by graduates of Australian university chemistry departments and the preference given to British chemists when making senior appointments at Australian universities. These traditions faded after 1950, but by then the influence of American chemistry was being felt. The leaders in this shift of allegiance were the inorganic co-ordination chemists, arguably the strongest discipline group in Australian chemistry through most of the twentieth century, although organic chemistry was also prominent, especially after 1960. Two aspects of applied chemistry stand out, the first relating to minerals and their associated physical chemistry, and the second to medicinal chemistry based on Australia's unique flora. The changes to the training and activities of chemists in Australia, traced over a century and a half, can be seen as part of an overall national "growing up" which produced, in broader spheres, changes in the social, economic, legal and political relationship of Australia to its mother country. At the same time as this disengagement went on, in chemistry as in many other fields, new relationships were developed with the United States.