WISENET Journal 35, July 1994, pp. 7-9.
My present position is Head of the Liver Unit at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, where I am a Senior Principal Research Fellow with an Adjunct Professorship in the University of Queensland, Department of Medicine. We have a joint Liver Programme between the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Department of Medicine of the University of Queensland.
I graduated as a BSc from the University of Queensland at the end of 1950 and with Honours in 1951. From 1952 to 1955 I undertook a PhD in the University of Wisconsin with majors in Biochemistry and Bacteriology. At the end of this time I became a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry in the Middlesex Hospital, London. I returned to the University of Queensland in 1956 as a Lecturer in Biochemistry in the Department of Pathology (fixed term - yearly renewable because I was female).
In 1967-68 I then moved to the Department of Medicine as an NH&MRC Senior Research Officer. I remained with the Department of Medicine until our Liver Unit moved in its entirety in 1990 to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. In the same year I was honoured by the award of Membership in the Order of Australia (A.M.) for services to medical research.
My major research interests have been in the area of liver disease and iron metabolism with a strong clinical bias, in the biochemistry or iron metabolism with special reference to iron-building proteins (eg: ferritin) and their receptors, in the development of more effective methods for the screening of families and subsequently, of populations, for the inherited iron storage disease genetic haemochromatosis. This has been a major on-going interest of mine for many years. I was a pioneer in the use of serum ferritin and liver iron concentration as diagnostic aids and we have greatly extended the use of HLA antigen typing and now the use of DNA studies in this disease.
The funding for these studies comes largely from competitive grants from the (NH&MRC). With Professor Lawrie Powell and Graham Cooksley I have held three successive five-year programme grants from the NH&MRC. I am co-chief investigator on several projects relating to the diagnosis, prevalence and the localisation of the gene for this inherited, iron-overload disease, which occurs in one in 300 of the Australian population. Our ultimate aim is to clone the gene and also to determine the basic biochemical defect. A study of alcoholic liver disease and markers of alcoholism and the interrelationships of iron, alcohol and fibrosis in liver disease.
A bald statement of a career path does not emphasise the major landmarks along the way and the markers which have pointed to future directions and thus I would like to expand on these a little. The first important influence in my professional life was the headmistress of the all-girls school which I attended (Miss E. Frances Craig) who saw to it that the school catered for the interests of ail students; she firmly believed that girls could do anything and encouraged them to try. This was not a common belief in the 1940's.
My second important mentor was Dr lan MacKerras and at the time of my early university studies he had just been appointed as the first Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. At the end of my second year of university studies, one of my fellow students (Marion Specht - nee Gillies) and I decided that the time had come to find a vacation job and we began work in a factory making fruit juice cordials. By the end of the first week we were feeling sore, sad and unloved and we took ourselves into the city for a short shopping spree. We bumped into lan MacKerras, whom we had previously met on a student excursion. He immediately asked after our progress and on learning that we were not too happy in the factory he immediately offered us the opportunity of a vacation research job in the laboratories of the Institute, working largely with his wife Dr Josephine MacKerras.
Thus it was that a life of research began in my early student days. After graduation lan offered me the first scholarship which was given by the Institute for a student to study for an honours degree. He and Dr John Hines of the Biochemistry Department then encouraged me to proceed to a PhD (which was not then available in Queensland in the Department of Physiology/ Biochemistry) and to apply for a Fulbright grant and an overseas university scholarship. Without that encouragement undoubtedly I would have not even considered such a course of action. I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in the second year they were offered and with my brand new husband went off to undertake a PhD in the United States at the University of Wisconsin.
After a post-doc period in London, we returned to Queensland. I was immediately offered a job as a lecturer in the Department of Pathology to undertake biochemical research into the problems of lead poisoning and also into haematological problems including haemophilia and I was to teach experimental haematology and the biochemistry of genetic diseases to medical students. It was at the end of the first year that the crunch came. As a woman I was not able to hold a tenured lectureship and on the arrival of my first child I was informed by the University Senate that my place was at home with my child and that my appointment would not be renewed (1956)! No amount of argument concerning nannies and child care or postgraduate qualifications would alter their decision and so for the next two years I was housebound with my two children and had given up thoughts of making use of my hard earned qualifications.
When my second child was six months old, I was phoned by the department to say that the University had a change of policy and would I please return. After some negotiations I agreed to return to a part-time lectureship. I was able to maintain some research during this period but obviously not as much as I would have liked. When that yearly appointment ceased in 1968 I joined the Department of Medicine on NH&MRC funding and with Lawrie Powell we eventually created a Liver Unit which still thrives. This was a most unusual combination at that time - a clinician and a basic scientist in a clinical department, but it allowed each of us to contribute and I believe the sum has proven to be much greater than the parts. However, the struggle to achieve recognition in the clinical department meant that I was expected to provide my own funding and indeed I have been supported by the NH&MRC Fellowship career structure from that time uninterruptedly until 1990 when my career turned full circle as I returned to head the Liver Unit at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.
My three children have survived the "difficulties" of having a working research scientist as a mother and a university staff member as a father. My husband Bill retired in 1992 as Professor of Immunology from the University of Queensland. All three of our children graduated in medicine, two with honours. Two are specialising, one in surgery, one in gastroenterology and our daughter is a GP meeting the same challenges as I did with two small children of her own.
A satisfying career with hobbies included was not only possible but enjoyable. However, it certainly required hard work and was helped immeasurably by a supportive partner. Contrary to the often expressed expectations of my generation my children do not seem to have suffered and in fact probably benefited in many ways from having two career-oriented parents. This was much less usual at the time when we began but fortunately things are somewhat better now - at least the problems are being recognised.
Among the numerous committees upon which I sit, perhaps the most enjoyable is that of the Queensland Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. It is here that I see at first hand some of the cream of the crop of our young people who are without doubt among the best in the world. My interests have always led me to try to make it easier for all people, especially young women, to succeed in a research environment. It provides a stimulating environment with opportunities now for advancement to the most senior levels. The intellectual challenge of trying to solve problems along with the need to keep abreast of rapidly advancing new technologies ensures that the interest never wanes. The requirement for managerial, financial and personnel-related skills was never emphasised but has become an essential part of senior management in all areas, including the scientific. The ethical challenges of scientific progress seem not to be greater than ever before and it behoves as women scientists to ensure that these challenges are met.