1965

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

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.

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.

View related events

1923

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet begins his research career at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

1932

Liz and her little brother Ian join their father every Sunday, religiously, for a very different ritual to that of other Melbourne households of the era.

1960

Burnet wins the Nobel Prize, for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance.

1985

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet dies