Simmons, Roy Thomas (1906 - 1975)

Summary

Roy Thomas Simmons was Consultant Serologist (Prinicipal Scientific Officer) at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory (CSL) in Victoria from 1961 to 1971. He started there as a temporary laboratory assistant in 1924. From 1927 to 1935 Simmons was seconded to the Commonwealth Department of Health as a relieving biochemist. While at CSL he worked mainly on blood groups and the Rh factor. His work made an outstanding contribution to the safety of blood transfusion in Australia, and the detection and understanding of Rh sensitisation, especially in relation to haemolytic disease of the newborn. He also used blood groups for anthropological studies, including collaborating with D. Carleton Gajdusek in 1955 on studies of a central nervous system disorder of the Fore people of New Guinea. Gajdusek concluded that it was transmitted by the ritualistic eating of the brains of deceased tribal members.

Details

After graduating from the Junior School of the Working Men's College (1923circa), Roy Thomas Simmons enrolled in a Diploma of Chemistry. He graduated in 1926 and became an Associate of the Working Men's College in Inorganic Chemistry. While undertaking his studies, Simmons began working as a temporary laboratory assistant at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory (CSL) in 1924. He remained with CSL until his retirement in 1971. By 1927 he had increased his knowledge of biochemistry and bacteriology to such an extent that he was seconded to the Commonwealth Department of Health as a relieving biochemist controlling diagnostic procedures throughout Australia.

Simmons returned to the CSL in 1936 to help establish a Research Department there in which he was appointed personal assistant and biochemist to the Director of Research. Simmons became the first person in the world to isolate bacteriophages against diphtheria microbes, thus instigating work on the first vaccine. He also worked on other illnesses such as whooping cough, but by the early1940s his main interest was in blood groups. Roy Simmons was the first in Australia to discover the significance of the Rh factor and introduced the exchange blood transfusion technique to fight haemolytic disease in the newborn.

From 1943 to 1971 Roy Simmons headed the free, nationwide blood group reference service of CSL. This work was invaluable to hospitals in screening patients and trying to find compatible blood donors. The blood group laboratory produced work of such high quality that in 1965 the World Health Organisation chose it to be the testing laboratory of the entire South-Pacific region.

Overall the work of Roy Thomas Simmons and his collaborators helped dispel many myths and produce new vaccines and treatment regimes. One of his greatest contributions was the Anti-Rh agent which has helped prevent many deaths of Rh-positive babies carried by Rh-negative mothers (the mother's immune system sees the baby's Rh+ blood as foreign and a danger so initiates an immune reaction to kill of the perceived 'threat').

Chronology

1924 - 1927

Career position - Laboratory Assistant at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) in Parkville, Victoria

1926

Education - Diploma of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry completed at the Working Men's College in Melbourne

1927 - 1935

Career position - Relieving Biochemist for the Commonwealth Department of Health (Australia wide)

1936 - 1947

Career position - Personal Assistant and Biochemist to the Director of Research at CSL

1940 -

Career position - Began research into blood-groups

1940 - 1956

Career position - Head of production and quality control of C.S.L. products

1943 - 1971

Career position - CSL's free blood-group reference service for Australia established

1947 - 1961

Career position - Consultant / Seologist at CSL

1957 - 1970

Career position - Studied the fatal neurological disorder kuru ('laughing sickness') found in New Guinea

1961 - 1971

Career position - Principal Scientific Officer / Consultant Serologist at CSL

1965 -

Career position - The World Health Organization nominated his laboratory as its blood-group reference centre for the South Pacific region

1965

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1971

Life event - Retired

Published resources

Book Sections

• Egan, Bryan, 'Simmons, Roy Thomas (1906-1975), Medical Scientist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 242-243. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160289b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Roy Thomas Simmons, DSc, FRACI, FRACI (Hon.), FISH, FRACI', Pathology, 8 (1) (1976), 83-84. Details
• Birdsell, J. B., 'Obituary: Roy Thomas Simmons 1906-1975', American journal of physical anthropology, 45 (1) (1976), 1-4. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21537682. Details
• 'Simmons, Roy Thomas (1906-1975)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1467349. Details
• 'Awarded honorary DSc, 1965', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_s.html. Details