Day, Maxwell Frank Cooper (1915 - 2017)

Summary

Max Day was considered one of Australia's scientific leaders. His research was in the fields of entomology, virology, forestry and ecology. He was a pioneer in cross-disciplinary studies with a strong emphasis on nationally significant problems and their international context, and an important advocate of evidence-based policy-making. For several years during WWII he was Scientific Liaison Officer in the CSIR Australian Scientific Research Liaison Office, Washington D.C. On returning to Australia in 1947 Day joined the CSIRO Division of Entomology, his research involving how moths digested woollen keratin, mosquitoes and the transmission of viruses, and Myxomatosis. He ultimately became Assistant Chief of the Division and Chief of the Division of Forest Research. Between 1966 and 1976 he was a member of the CSIRO Executive, a period during which there were eight Ministers of Science. This appointment required a delicate balancing act between disciplines, interest groups, divisional chiefs and the public interest. Day's concern with environmental issues included involvement in a wide range activities, some of these being the establishment of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, co-founding of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the publication of the Records of the Australian Academy of Science, and the creation (with Jack Crawford and Frank Fenner) of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES) at the Australian National University. In retirement Day took on advisory roles and consultancies, including for the World Bank, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources and the Commission on the Application of Science to Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture (CASAFA).

Details

Chronology

1937

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Sydney

1938

Career position - Assistant Research Officer, CSIR Division of Economic Entomology

1938 - 1939

Award - Training with Professor Lemuel Roscoe Cleveland, and part-time entomology course work, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A., Science and Industry Endowment Fund

1939 - 1941

Career position - Lehman Fellow, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1941

Education - PhD, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1941 - 1942

Career position - Lecturer in Cytology and Parasitology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

1942 - 1944

Career position - Procurement Officer with the Australian War Supplies Procurement in Washington, USA

1944 - 1947

Career position - Scientific Liaison Officer, CSIR Australian Scientific Research Liaison Office, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

1947 - 1963

Career position - Research Officer, CSIR/O Division of Economic Entomology

1955 - 1957

Career position - Seconded to CSIRO Australian Scientific Liaison Office, Washington D.C., U.S.A

1956 - 2017

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1958

Career position - Chairman, National Parks and Reserves Committee, Australian Academy of Science

1963 - 1966

Career position - Assistant Chief, CSIRO Division of Entomology

1966

Career position - Foundation Member, Australian Conservation Foundation

1966 - 1969

Career position - Chairman, Editorial Board, Records of the Australian Academy of Science

1966 - 1976

Career position - Member of the Executive of CSIRO

1967 - 1973

Career position - Member of Council, ACT Branch, Australian Conservation Foundation

1970 - 1972

Career position - Chair, Interim Council of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)

1972 - 1978

Career position - Member of Council, Australian Institute of Marine Science

1975

Career position - Member of the Board, International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM)

1976 - ?

Career position - Member, Advisory Committee, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University

1976 - 1980

Career position - Chief, CSIRO Division of Forest Research

1977

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

1979

Career position - Member, Advisory Committee, Koscuisko National Park

1985 - 2017

Career position - Honorary Research Fellow, CSIRO Division of Entomology

2001

Award - Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and science

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Maxwell Frank Cooper Day - Records, 1972 - c. 2000, MS 140; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Edited Books

• Day, M. F. ed., Australia's forests: their role in our future: papers presented to a meeting of the Science and Industry Forum of the Australian Academy of Science, 6-8 February 1981 (Canberra: Australian Academy of Science, 19081), 123 pp. Details
• Campbell, K,. S. W. and Day, M. F. eds, Rates of evolution (London: Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987), 314 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituaries: Dr Maxwell Day AO FAA 1915 20 2017; Professor George (Ken) Cavill FAA 1922 to 2017', Australian Academy of Science Newsletter (2017), 14, https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/fellows-update-september-2017. Details
• Anon, 'Max calls it a Day', CoResearch: CSIRO staff newspaper, 236 (1) (1980), 7. Details
• Day, M. F., 'The genera of Australian Membracidae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha)', Invertebrate taxonomy, 13 (4) (1999), 629-747. Details
• Day, M. F. and Fletcher, M. J., 'An annotated catalogue of the Australian Cicadelloidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha)', Invertebrate taxonomy, 8 (1994), 1117-1288. Details
• Day, M.F.C. et al., 'The Biological Collections in CSIRO: a National Heritage', Historical Records of Australian Science, 15 (1) (2004), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR04002. Details
• Day, M.F.C.; Rentz, D.C.F., 'Kenneth Hedley Lewis Key, 1911-2002', Historical Records of Australian Science, 15 (1) (2004), 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR04001. Details
• Day, Maxwell F. C.; Whitten, Maxwell J.; and Sands, Don P. A., 'Douglas Frew Waterhouse, C.M.G. 3 June 1916 - 1 December 2000', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 48 (2002), 459-81. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2002.0027. Details
• Day, Maxwell F.C.; Whitten, Maxwell J.; Sands, Don, 'Douglas Frew Waterhouse 1916-2000', Historical Records of Australian Science, 13 (4) (2001), 495-519. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR0011340495. Details
• Fenner, F., Day, M. F. and Woodroofe, G. M., 'The mechanism of the transmission of myxomatosis in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) by the mosquito Aedes aegypti', Australian journal of experimental biology and medical science, 30 (2) (1952), 139-52, https://doi.org/10.1038/icb.1952.13. Details
• Fenner, Frank, Day, M. F. and Gwendolyn M. Woodroofe, 'Epidemiological consequences of the mechanical transmission of myxomatosis by mosquito', Epidemiology & infection, 54 (2) (1956), 284-303. Details
• Horak, M., Day, M. F., Barlow, C., Edwards, E. D., Su, Y. N. and Cameron, S. L., 'Systematics and biology of the iconic Australian scribbly gum moths Ogmograptis Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Bucculatricidae) and their unique insect-plant interaction', Invertebrate systematics, 26 (4) (2012), 357-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/IS12022. Details
• Robin, Libby; and Day, Jon C., 'Maxwell Frank Cooper Day 1915 - 2017', Historical Records of Australian Science, 31 (1) (2020), 39-53. https://www.publish.csiro.au/HR/pdf/HR19007. Details
• Robin, Libby; with Day, Max, 'Changing ideas about the environment in Australia: learning from Stockholm', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (1) (2017), 37-49, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR17004. Details

Reports

• Day, John C. Ed., All in a day's work: memoirs, stories, articles and images of Dr Max Day AO FAA, complied to celebrate Max's 100th birthday, 21 December 2015 (Townsville, Qld: John Day, 2015), 98 pp, http://ceh.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/wp-content/uploads/Compilation-for-100th-birthday_Max-Day_18Dec2015.pdf. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21509973. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/272324116. Details
• One of Australia's oldest scientists remembered, Australian Academy of Science, 3 August 2017, https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/one-australias-oldest-scientists-remembered. Details
• 'Day, Maxwell Frank Cooper (1915 - 2017)', Fellows of the Academy, Australian Academy of Science, 2019, https://www.science.org.au/profile/maxwell-day. Details
• 'Day, M F (1915-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-636918. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Day, Maxwell Frank Cooper - Ms 140', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms140.html. Details
• Blythe, Max, 'Interview with Dr Max Day', in Interviews with Australian scientists, Australian Academy of Science, 1993, https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/history/interviews-australian-scientists/dr-max-day-ecologist. Details
• Ward, C., 'Maxwell Frank Cooper Day', in CSIROpedia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2011, https://csiropedia.csiro.au/Day-Maxwell-Frank-Cooper. Details

See also

• Heyde, C. C., 'Patrick Alfred Pierce Moran 1917-1988', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (1) (1992), 17-30. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920910017. Details