|
|
|
Student of the Breath of Life
|
DIANA TEMPLE was 17 when she started
work during World War II as a laboratory assistant at Western Australia’s Great
Boulder mine. By the time she retired in 1990 she had published 100 scientific
papers, delivered keynote speeches at 60 conferences, had become associate
professor at Sydney University’s Pharmacology Department and founded the Women
in Science Enquiry Network, enabling thousands of women to follow in her
scientific footsteps.
In 1999 Temple, who has died from a lung disease, was appointed a member of the
Order of Australia, “for service to medical and scientific research,
particularly in the field of respiratory pharmacology; as an advocate for the
role of women in science; and in promoting an understanding of science by the
general public”.
Diana Marmion was born in Kalgoorlie where she attended East Kalgoorlie School
and matriculated in chemistry before gaining a bachelor of science from the
University of Western Australia in 1947, an unusual choice for a woman in those
years.
Despite her love of the West Australian outback, in 1949, aged 22, she started
teaching chemistry at Sydney University before taking a research job at Harwell
Research Institute in Oxford, where she married a fellow scientist, Dr Richard
Temple.
After working in the US for several years she returned to Australia with her
husband and gained a PhD in chemistry at the University of Sydney in 1962. She
took up lecturing in pharmacology at the University and also started a family.
In the mid-1970s she joined a group of women studying the role and achievements
of female academics, the findings of which were published in 1983 in a book, Why
So Few? In 1976 Temple was appointed associate professor in the Department of
Pharmacology, heading the Department until 1979. She also became a member of the
academic board.
While in the Department, her research interests were primarily in respiratory
pharmacology; she nurtured a specialist research team in this field. As a
result, respiratory research at the University of Sydney prospered and is now a
research strength of the faculty.
It was during this time Temple published 100 scientific papers, mainly in the
field of respiratory pharmacology. She also supervised 41 research students.
She was a fellow of the university senate from 1985 to 1987 and an elected
member of the academic board from 1976 to 1989 before she retired in 1990, when
she was made an honorary associate of the department of pharmacology. In 1995
she was made a life member of the faculty of medicine, and a life member of the
Australasian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and
Toxicologists.
She also worked with the Australian & New Zealand Association for the
Advancement of Science (ANZAAS), as member of the national council from 1979 to
1985, then 1992 to 1994, and as general secretary from 1979 to 1985, helping
administer the Eureka Prizes for many years. She also served on the NSW Privacy
Commission.
Believing professional women needed to align with like-minded women confronting
the same challenges in establishing and maintaining their careers, Temple helped
establish the Women in Science Enquiry Network (WISENet) at ANZAAS in 1984.
She was listed as a founding member of the link team on the back of the first
issue of the WISENet Journal of April 1985, and through to May 2003.
She also served as the WISENet national convener for 10 years and promoted the
journal as the most important tentacle, disseminating the message of WISENet to
people who were never able to attend meetings. WISENet and the WISENet Journal
are Temple’s monuments, as they continue their role in forwarding women’s
participation in science.
Temple led by example, achieving distinction in her professional life,
maintaining a loving family structure. She also cultivated a wide range of
interests. She was an avid bushwalker, loved boating, and frequented the ballet,
opera and exhibitions. But whether it was literary discussion, National Trust
outings or acting as honorary attendant in the Sydney University’s art gallery
after her retirement, she brought to it the same uplifting, loving, generous
persona.
A woman of boundless energy for most of her life, with a keen interest in
people, especially those in science, Temple was respected by all who knew her,
and her support and encouragement to many women and men whose lives she touched
will leave a broad and lasting legacy. For generations of people she was a
mentor and role model of great consequence.
She is survived by her husband, Richard, her children, Helen and Jonathan, and
grandchildren, Charlotte and Nicholas.
|
|
