People behind the science

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet retires

Retiring director Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (left) with incoming director Sir Gustav Nossal.
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet with a bronze bust of himself, created by the portrait sculptor Arnold Bonnet at the unveiling ceremony.

1965

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet retires after 21 years as director of the institute.

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet retires as director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, handing the torch to his protégée Sir Gustav Nossal.

In a foreword to a biography of Burnet, His Royal Highness Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh says: “I do not think that anyone would want to deny that Sir Macfarlane Burnet was Australia’s most distinguished scientist. It will be a very great man indeed who ever supplants him.”1

1 Sexton C (1999) Burnet: a life. South Melbourne. Oxford University Press.