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Aspiration Achievement Age
Professor Frank Fenner

A College Student's View
by Simon Ross
Dickson College, ACT

Professor Frank Fenner was born in 1914 in Ballarat, Victoria. The son of two teachers, he was exposed to a love of learning, enquiry and the fascination of science early in his Adelaide childhood. His youthful ambition was to become a geologist, inspired by his father's enthusiastic descriptions of the geography and the underlying geology as they travelled on the long family trips back to Victoria.

However, due to limited employment opportunities then in geology, Fenner's father dissuaded him, instead encouraging him to do medicine. This Decision opened up a wide range of opportunities, and led Fenner first into anthropological, and eventually viral research. Despite this major directional change, Fenner says he doesn't regret a thing. Research is what makes him happy, and medicine has allowed him to do this, and with great success.

In 1940 Fenner joined the Australian army and was stationed in Syria as a field doctor. Before enlisting, Fenner had done a diploma of tropical medicine, so when malaria became a significant problem in the Middle East and Papua New Guinea, he was one of the few with some experience. He was soon working in a hospital in northern Australia, then as a 'malariologist' in Papua New Guinea, and eventually took part in much of the development of early treatments for malaria.

Through relationships made during the war years, Fenner worked on the mouse strain of the smallpox virus, with Nobel Prize winner Macfarlane Burnet in Melbourne. This led to a fellowship at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. At the end of the fellowship, Fenner was at a loss as to future directions when he received a letter from Howard Florey, inviting him to become the first Professor of Bacteriology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, the chair he finally accepted was actually in microbiology at Fenner's suggestion. Now, a committed virologist, his distinguished studies were pioneering research in that field, including the work on myxomatosis virus. Fenner eventually became the School's Director in 1967. In 1997, Fenner became the Chairman of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication, for the World Health Organisation and eventually stood in front of the UN General Assembly to make the announcement of the eradication of that disease (to date the only disease ever to be completely eradicated).

Professor Frank Fenner continues to work at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and has had numerous books and papers published. He admits to modest aspirations, is modest about the achievements of his career, and maintains that he has had a lucky run in life. He endeavours to accept life as it comes and to make the most of his talents and opportunities. Professor Fenner has been rewarded with many prizes and medals, but most recently with the Albert Einstein Award for Lifetime Contribution to Medical Science.