Veterinary scientist, born in Bathurst, New South Wales, SE Australia. He joined the newly formed [Australian] Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1926, but resigned upon being appointed Australian representative on the International Wool Secretariat (1937), where he served as chairman until 1940. That year he became professor of veterinary science at Sydney University. When the CSIR became the [Australian] Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in 1949, he was its first chairman.
Sir Ian Clunies Ross (1899-1959) is described as the 'architect' of Australia's scientific boom, for his stewardship of Australia's scientific organisation the CSIRO.
Early career
Clunies Ross was born William Ian Clunies Ross in Bathurst, New South Wales on February 22, 1899. His father's father, Robert Clunies Ross, was a brother of that John Clunies Ross who settled with his family and crew on Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 1826-7 and proclaimed a kingdom. In 1921, Clunies Ross was given a temporary lectureship in veterinary anatomy, the following year he was made a Fellow of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, allowing him to a travel overseas.
When he returned to Sydney he set up a veterinary practice, lectured at the University and continued his own research on hydatid parasite (Echinococcus granulosus), the liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica), and the dog-tick (Ixodes holocyclus).
In 1926 Clunies Ross was appointed parasitologist to the newly established Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and was funded to continue research at the Sydney University Veterinary School. By mid-1931, three other researchers were working with him, and in November 1931 the team moved into CSIR's new McMaster Animal Health Laboratory, Clunies Ross was appointed as the Officer-in-Charge of the laboratory.
Science administration
Following his time at the McMaster Laboratory, Clunies Ross spent times in Asia, and he was the Australian representative at the International Wool Secretariat in London from 1937–1940. He and his family returned to Australia when World War II broke out, he returned to the Veterinary school at the University of Sydney.
In 1943, Clunies Ross was appointed Director of Scientific Personnel in the Commonwealth Directorate of Manpower and also Adviser on the Pastoral Industry to the Department of War Organization of Industry. At the end of the war he left the university to assist the CSIR in planning sheep and wool-textile research.
He served as the executive officer of the CSIR until 1949 when it was renamed the CSIRO.
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