Frank MacFarlane Burnet

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Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet (born September 3, 1899 in Traralgon, Victoria; died August 31, 1985) was an Australian biologist.

His father, a Scottish emigrant to Australia, was the manager of the Traralgon branch of the Colonial Bank. As a boy, MacFarlane Burnet showed an early interest in biology and collected beetles, butterflies and the like. His family moved west to Terang, Victoria when he was 10. Due to the wildlife around a nearby lake, this move only increased his interest in nature. At a young age he was introduced to the works of Charles Darwin through an old Chambers Encyclopaedia. The writings of H.G. Wells were also influential during his formative years.

He was educated at Victorian State Schools and later Geelong College, before attending the University of Melbourne on a scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor of medicine and a bachelor of surgery in 1922, and as a Doctor of Medicine in 1923. From 1923 to 1924 he was resident pathologist at the Melbourne hospital, where he conducted research into the agglutinin reactions in typhoid fever. In 1926 Macfarlane Burnet was awarded the Beit memorial fellowship from the Lister Institute in London.

He married his first wife, Edith Linda Druce in 1928.

In 1932 he worked at the National Institute for Medical Research, London. Otherwise, his work was primarily conducted at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, of which he was made assistant director in 1934 and Director in 1944.

Macfarlane Burnet's studies were principally directed in the areas of virology in his early career and immunity in his later career. The first 10 years of his research career being devoted to the study of bacteriophages, on the subject of which he wrote 32 papers between 1924 and 1937.

Government files from 1947, declassified by the National Archives of Australia, show that Burnet made the recommendation that Australia pursue development of chemical and biological weapons to target neighboring countries' food stocks and spread infectious diseases, describing this course of action as "the most effective counter-offensive to threatened invasion by overpopulated Asiatic countries." He also commented on the economic advantage of bio-warfare, saying, "Its use has the tremendous advantage of not destroying the enemy's industrial potential which can then be taken over intact."

Burnet was knighted in 1951.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1960, along with Peter Brian Medawar, for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. He was awarded Australian of the Year at this time as well.

In 1965 he retired from his position as director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.

He wrote an autobiography entitled Changing Patterns: An Atypical Autobiography. in 1968.

His first wife, Edith Linda Druce died from lymphoid lukemia in 1973 and in 1976 he married his second wife, Hazel G. Jenkins.

MacFarlane Burnet was operated on for cancer in late 1984. Despite appearing initially to have recovered, more lesions were discovered in August of 1985. He died shortly thereafter on August 31, 1985 in Port Fairy, Victoria.

His studies in virology and poliomyelitis led to his recognition as one of Australia's greatest scientists.

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