Person

Cannon, Lester Robert Glen (1940 - )

Born
4 September 1940
St Neot's, Huntingdon, United Kingdom
Occupation
Parasitologist

Summary

Lester Cannon worked on trematodes in fish, ascaridoid worms on fish and molluscs, the Crown of Thorns Starfish and other parasites before being appointed to the Queensland Museum as Curator of Lower Invertebrates. He was the only Curator in any Australian museum with parasitological training. As curator Cannon built up the parasitology collections such that the Queensland Museum now has one of the world's most significant such collections. In 1995 he negotiated for the WHO's International Reference Centre for Avian Haematazoa to be deposited at the Museum. Other collections transferred to Brisbane during Cannon's tenure include that of the School of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, the University of Sydney, and of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. He was highly successful in encouraging international experts to visit the Queensland Museum to study these collections. Cannon was instrumental in the development of the Australian Society for Parasitology Information on Collections (ASPIC), the database of Australian parasitology collections. In his research Cannon described one new family, 15 new genera and many new species. The turbellarian sub-family Cannoninae Faubel & Rohde was named in his honour.

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Details

Chronology

1950
Life event - Family migrated to Australia
1965
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc(Hons)), University of Queensland
1970
Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Toronto, Canada
1970 - 1971
Career position - Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
1971 - 1973
Career position - Queen's Fellowship in marine science, Department Parasitology, University of Queensland
1976 - 2003
Career position - Curator of Lower Invertebrates (later Senior Curator: Worms), Queensland Museum
1977 - 1979
Career position - Treasurer, Great Barrier Reef Committee
1991
Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Biology
1996
Career position - Convenor, 8th International Symposium of the Biology of Turbellaria, Brisbane
1999
Award - Fellow, Australian Society for Parasitology
2003
Life event - Retired
2004
Award - Queensland Museum Medal

Related Awards

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • Angus, B. M., 'The study of turbellarians (Platyhelminthes) at the Queensland Museum', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 53 (1) (2007), 157-85. Details
  • Angus, B. M.; Cannon, L. G. R.; and Adlard, R. D., 'Parasitology and the Queensland Museum, with Biographical Notes on Collectors', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Nature, 53 (2007), 1-156. Details

Resources

Helen Cohn

Last modified: 18 October 2022

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