Anderson, Charlotte Morrison (1915 - 2002)

Summary

Charlotte Anderson was an Australian pioneer of paediatric gastroenterology. She developed a clinical research program at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, where she also established the first cystic fibrosis clinic in Australia (1953) and the hospital's Gastroenterological Research Unit (1962). Her research was wide-reaching and varied, but her major contributions were made in the areas of cystic fibrosis, celiac disease and sugar intolerance: Anderson devised a test to differentiate between cystic fibrosis and celiac disease; introduced the use of inhalation and chest physiotherapy to increase the survival rate of cystic fibrosis patients; discovered that celiac disease was triggered by wheat gluten and that a gluten-free diet could prevent further disease onset and heal the damaged gut; and invented a simple, non-invasive test for diagnosing sugar intolerance in infants.

Details

After completing a science degree and five years of research, Charlotte Morrison Anderson, decided to take up medicine. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1945 and was appointed a Resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The following year she moved to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital which was the start of her life-long association with the hospital. The hospital's Charlote Anderson Memorial Lecture was named in her honour.

In 1950 Anderson received a fellowship and travelled to the Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Birmingham in England to continue her research into malabsorption problems in children. She returned to Melbourne and to the Children's Hospital in 1953 and established Australia's first cystic fibrosis clinic. In 1962 she set up the hospital's Gastroenterological Research Unit, which she headed for six years.

Charlotte Anderson returned to England and to the University of Birmingham in 1968, remaining there for fourteen years. After her retirement in 1982, she came back to Australia where she worked as an Honorary Consulting Gasteroenterologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Western Australia and at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Anderson was a fellow of the national and international paediatric societies, helped establish the Australian Society of Paediatric Research, co-founded the Australian Paediatric Journal (1965), authored numerous scientific publications including the book Paediatric Gastroenterology (Anderson & Burke, 1975), and was appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her service to medicine.

Chronology

1936

Education - Bachelor of Science with Honours (BSc(Hons)), University of Melbourne

1936 - 1941

Career position - Research Biochemist at the Baker Medical Research Institute, Alfred Hospital, Victoria

1937

Education - Master of Science (MSc) with Exhibition, University of Melbourne

1945

Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (BS), University of Melbourne

1945 - 1946

Career position - Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital

1946 - 1947

Career position - Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne

1948 - 1950

Career position - Medical Registrar at the Clinical Research Unit of the Royal Children's Hospital

1950 - 1951

Career position - Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, UK

1953 - 1956

Career position - Senior Research Associate at the Clinical Research Unit, Royal Children's Hospital

1955

Education - Doctor of Medicine (MD), University of Melbourne

1956 - 1959

Career position - First Assistant in Medical Out-patients at the Royal Children's Hospital

1956 - 1961

Career position - First Assistant (to 1959) then Deputy Director of the Clinical Research Unit

1962 - 1967

Career position - Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians

1962 - 1968

Career position - Head of the Gastroenterological Research Unit, Royal Children's Hospital Research Foundation in Melbourne

1965 - 1968

Career position - Co-founder of The Australian Paediatric Journal

1967 -

Award - Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP)

1968 - 1980

Career position - Leonard Parsons Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Birmingham and Director of the Institute of Child Health, University of Birmingham, UK

1969 - 1971

Career position - Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, London

1971 -

Award - Fellow, Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), London

1975 -

Award - Fellow, Australian College of Paediatrics (FACP)

1980 -

Career position - Professor Emeritus in Paediatrics and child Health, University of Birmingham

1982 - 1990

Career position - Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Western Australia

1982 - 1990

Career position - Honorary Consulting Gastroenterologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth

1994 -

Career position - Honorary Consulting Gastroenterologist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne

1996 -

Award - Honorary Founder Fellow Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK

1997

Award - Member of the (General Division) Order of Australia (AM)

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Journal Articles

• Allen, Nessy, 'A Pioneer of Paediatric Gastroenterology: the Career of an Australian Woman Scientist [Charlotte Morrison Anderson]', Historical Records of Australian Science, 11 (1) (1996), 35-50. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9961110035. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5085828. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/266915805. Details
• 'Anderson, Charlotte M (1915-2002)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-458132. Details

See also

• Andrew, Rod and Barnett, Alf eds, In their day: the Baker Medical Research Institute memoirs of alumni (South Yarra (Vic.): Hyland House, 1992), 188 pp. Details