Person

Specht, Raymond Louis (1924 - 2021)

AO

Born
19 July 1924
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Died
13 February 2021
Occupation
Botanist, Conservationist and Ecologist

Summary

Raymond Specht was Professor of Botany at the University of Queensland from 1966 to 1989. He has also been an active member of a phenomenal number of scientific bodies and committees and has published widely in the fields of botany, ecology and conservation. Among his many publications were Vegetation of South Australia (1972) and Mediterranean ecosystems of the world (1981, 2nd edition 1988).

Details

Chronology

1942 - 1946
Career position - Student Teacher, then Junior and Secondary Teacher with the Education Department of South Australia
1943 - 1946
Education - Bachelor of Science with Honours (BSc (Hons)) completed at the University of Adelaide
1947 -
Career position - Member of the ANZAAS (Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science)
1947 -
Career position - Member of the Royal Society of South Australia
1947
Career position - Grassland Ecologist on a survey of the South-East of South Australia with the Agronomy Department of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute
1948 - 1949
Career position - Botanist on the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory
1949
Education - Master of Science (MSc) completed at the University of Adelaide
1949 - 1950
Career position - Senior Research Fellow in Botany at the University of Adelaide
1951 - 1952
Career position - Councillor of the Royal Society of South Australia
1951 - 1954
Career position - Lecturer in Botany at the University of Adelaide
1953
Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at the University of Adelaide
1955 - 1960
Career position - Senior Lecturer in Botany at the University of Adelaide
1961 - ?
Career position - Member of the Royal Society of Victoria
1961
Award - Sir Joseph Verco Medal received from the Royal Society of South Australia
1961 - 1965
Career position - Reader in Plant Ecology at the University of Melbourne
1964
Career position - Acting-Head of the Department of Botany at the University of Melbourne
1964 - 1967
Career position - Member, Planning Committee, International Biological Programme
1964 - 1967
Career position - Australian Convenor, Terrestrial Productivity and Conservation Sections, International Biological Programme
1966 - 1978
Career position - Head of the Department of Botany at the University of Queensland
1966 - 1989
Career position - Professor of Botany at the University of Queensland
1967 - ?
Career position - Member of the of the Royal Society of Queensland
1968 - 1979
Career position - Member, Queensland Committee, CSIRO
1970
Career position - Visiting Professor in the Department of Forestry at the University of Oxford, UK
1970 - 1981
Career position - Member, Committee on Conservation, Australian Academy of Science
1974 - 1975
Education - Doctor of Science (DSc) received from the University of Adelaide
1975
Career position - Visiting Professor in the Department of Botany at the University of Leeds, UK
1976
Award - Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research
1978 - 1984
Career position - Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the World Wildlife Fund Australia
1979 - 1983
Career position - Member, Advisory Committee, Australian Biological Resources Study
1979 - 1984
Career position - Member, World Wildlife Australian Scientific Committee
1989 - ?
Career position - Professor Emeritus, University of Queensland
2015 - 2021
Award - Life Member, Royal Society of Queensland
2020
Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to science, and to education, in the field of botany, plant ecology and conservation

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Private hands (Specht, R.L.)

  • Raymond Louis Specht - Records, 1946 - 1988; Private hands (Specht, R.L.). Details

Published resources

Book Sections

  • McCarthy, Lynne, 'Ecology and the Arnhem Land Expedition: Raymond Specht, a botanist in the field' in Exploring the legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Thomas, Martin and Neale, Margot, eds (Canberra: ANU Press, 2011), pp. 157-69. https://doi.org/10.22459/ELALE.06.2011.08. Details
  • Specht, Ray, 'Wood, Joseph Garnett (1900-1959), Botanist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 578-579. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160690b.htm. Details

Edited Books

Journal Articles

  • Specht, Alison, 'Obituary Raymond Louis Specht, 1924 - 2021', Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland, 129 (2021), 129-35. https://doi.org/10.53060/prsq.2021.01. Details
  • Specht, Alison, Sattler, Paul, Hynes, Ross, Davie, Jim and Stubbs, Brett, 'Royal Society of Queensland, award of Life Member: Professor Ray Specht invested as Life Member, December 2015', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 121 (2016), 83-5. Details
  • Specht, Alison; and Specht, Raymond L., 'The legacy of the International Biological Program in Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 218 (2020), 113-24. Details
  • Specht, Ray L,, 'Obituary: Margaret McArthur Oliver 1919 - 2002', Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 12 (2) (2003), 127-8. Details
  • Specht, Ray L., 'Margaret McArthur Oliver', Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2002 (2) (2002), 122-4. Details

Resources

See also

  • Ashton, D. H.; Ducker, S. C., 'John Stewart Turner 1908-1991', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (3) (1993), 278-290. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9930930278. Details
  • Robson, Alexandra K.; Production Manager and Editor eds, Who's who in Australia 2019 (Southbank, Vic.: AAP Directories, 2018), 1788 pp. Details
  • Thomas, Martin and Neale, Margo eds, Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2011), 471 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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