Lilian Ross Fraser botanist in the Sydney Sun

Lilian Ross Fraser (1908– 5 October 1987) was an Australian botanist. She became the first woman inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science.

Career

Fraser was born in 1908, she was the daughter of Mr and Mrs C. Fraser of Pennant Hills. After graduating from Sydney Girls' High School, she attended the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. Fraser then conducted her postgraduate research at her Alma mater which included a study of the taxonomy of sooty moulds. She conducted fieldwork alongside

Joyce Winifred Vickery Joyce Winifred Vickery (15 December 190829 May 1979) was an Australian botanist who specialised in taxonomy and became well known in Australia for forensic botany. Early life and education Joyce was born in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. She ...

of the Barrington Tops National Park rainforest species in the 1930s before earning her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

. Fraser and Vickery co-discovered Lomandra hystrix, which they published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 62: 286 1937. Fraser eventually became the first Australian female to earn a Doctorate of Science in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

by 1937. Upon receiving her doctorate, she also became the first female Australian botanist and left to complete her graduate studies at

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

, in London. Fraser eventually accepted a position with the Australian Department of Agriculture in 1940 as an assistant plant pathologist. Alongside R. J. Swaby, she studied citrus diseases, and co-discovered that Phytophthora citrophthora in citrus trees along Murrumbidgee irrigation areas were the cause of a decline in their growth. As a result of her scientific accomplishments, Fraser became the first woman inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and the second female president of the Linnean Society in 1948. By August 1960, she was promoted to Senior Biologist at the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. Fraser made many collections of smut fungi and her collections of ''Sphacelotheca mutabilis'' (now '' Sporisorium mutabile''), ''Sorosporium polycarpum'' (now '' Sporisorium polycarpum''), '' Ustilago serena'', '' Ustilago valentula'' and ''Sorosporium fraserianum'' (now '' Sporisorium fraserianum'') became the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

specimens of those species, described by Hans Sydow. Two other new species, ''

Entyloma arctotis ''Entyloma'' is a genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV class ...

Vánky Vánky is a surname of Hungarian origin. Notable people with the surname include: *Farkas Vánky, Swedish cardiac and thoracic surgeon at Linköping University Hospital * Kálmán Vánky (born 1930), Hungarian mycologist * Péter Vánky (born 1968 ...

and '' Sporisorium lingii'' Vánky, were later found among her collections. By the time Fraser retired in 1973, she has been promoted to Chief Biologist of the Biological and Chemical Research Institute at Rydalmere. She was awarded the

Clarke Medal The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales, the oldest learned society in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, for distinguished work in the Natural sciences. The medal is named in honour of the Reverend William Branwh ...

by the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. It is the oldest learned society in the Southern Hemisphere. The Society traces its ...

in 1976.

Career

References

Further reading