Woodroofe, Gwendolyn Marion (Gwen) (1918 - 2012)

Summary

Born and educated in Adelaide, Gwen Woodroofe graduated BSc and MSc from the University of Adelaide under the mentorship of Nancy Atkinson for whom she worked as a demonstrator and research assistant. In 1951 she joined the staff at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University where she published with Frank Fenner and on myxomatosis, and with Ian Marshall on arboviruses. Woodroofe was active in the Federation of University Women. After retirement, she assisted UNICEF organising sales of Christmas cards. She established a postgraduate scholarship (first awarded 2002) at the Australian National University in the name of her sister, Kathleen Woodroofe, a historian at the University of New South Wales. The Gwendolyn Woodroofe Postgraduate Scholarship in the Biological Sciences was also first awarded in 2002.

Details

Chronology

1936 - 1937

Education - Attended St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School, North Adelaide

August 1938

Career position - Vacation work at Koonamore experimental area managed by the University of Adelaide

1940

Education - BSc, University of Adelaide

1944

Education - MSc, University of Adelaide

1945

Career event - Appointed Demonstrator and research assistant in Bacteriology, University of Adelaide

1950

Life event - Departed Australia with her sister Kathleen Woodroofe, and mother, for England for sightseeing

13 February 1951

Life event - Departed England in Strathaird for Australia

1 December 1951

Career event - Appointed Research assistant, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University

December 1958

Career event - Appointed Research Fellow, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University

1962

Education - PhD, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University

1963

Career event - Appointed Fellow, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University

1965

Career event - Study leave in New York, U.S.A.

12 April 1967 - 17 April 1967

Career position - Member of organising committee within the ACT Association, Australian Federation of University Women, for a careers conference for school girls, Canberra

1969

Career position - President, ACT Association, Australian Federation of University Women

1978

Life event - Retired

1980

Career event - Study leave (8 months), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. studying new arboviruses collected at a field station in New Guinea

1997

Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to women through the ACT Association of the Australian Federation of University Women and UNICEF-ACT

2002

Education - First award of the Kathleen Woodroofe Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities or Social Sciences, Australian National University

2002

Event - First award of the Gwendolyn Woodroofe Postgraduate Scholarship in the Biological Sciences, Australian National University

Related entries

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Gwen Woodroofe interviewed by Ann Moyal [sound recording], 19 November 2010 - 20 November 2010, ORAL TRC 6244; Woodroofe, Gwendolyn Marion (Gwen) (1918 - 2012), Moyal, Ann (1926 - 2019); National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Fenner, F. and Woodroofe, Gwendolyn M., 'The pathogenesis of infectious myzomatosis: the mechanism of infection and the immunological response in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)', British journal of experimental pathology, 34 (4) (1953), 400-11. 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 and Woodroofe, Gwendolyn, 'Protection of laboratory rabbits against myxomatosis by vaccination with Fibroma virus', Australian journal of experimental biology and medical science, 32 (5) (1954), 653-68. https://doi.org/10.1038/icb.1954.68. 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
• Fenner, Frank, Marshall, I. D. and Woodroofe, Gwendolyn M., ' Studies in the epidemiology of infectious myxomatosis of rabbits, I: recovery of Australian wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from myxomatosis under field conditions', Journal of hygiene, 51 (2) (1953), 225-44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022172400015655. Details
• Gard, G., Marshall, I. D. and Woodroofe, G. M., 'Annually recurrent epidemic polyarthritis and ross river virus activity in a coastal area of New South Wales, II. mosquitoes, viruses, and wildlife', American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 22 (4) (1973), 551-60, https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1973.22.551. Details
• Marshall, I. D., Woodroofe, G. M. and Hirsch, S., 'Viruses recovered from mosquitoes and wildlife serum collected in the Murray Valley of South-eastern Australia, February 1974, during an epidemic of encephalitis', Australian journal of experimental biology and medical science, 60 (5) (1982), 457-70, https://doi.org/10.1038/icb.1982.51. Details
• Marshall, Ian D., Woodroofe, Gwendolyn M. and Hirsch, Sylvia, 'Viruses recovered from mosquitoes and wildlife serum collected in the Murray Valley of Southeastern Australia, February 1974, during an epidemic of encephalitis', Australian journal of experimental biology and medical science, 60 (5) (1982), 457-70, https://doi.org/10.1038/icb.1982.51. Details

Resource Sections

• Shapley, Maggie, 'Woodroofe, Gwendolyn Marion (1918 - 2012)', in The Australian Women's Register, 5 February 2013, https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/woodroofe-gwendolyn-marion/. Details

Theses

• Woodroofe, G. M., 'A dissertation on the cultural and antigenic relationships of some members of the genus Corynebacterium with special reference to Corynebacterium equi and the role played by this organism in producing disease in the pig', MSc, University of Adelaide.', M.Sc., University of Adelaide, 1944. Details
• Woodroofe, G. M., 'Biological aspects of the reactivation of poxviruses', PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1961, https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/47873da2-34f8-4b21-b56e-17c152c3ad02. Details

See also

• Fenner, Frank ed., History of Microbiology in Australia (Melbourne: Australian Society for Microbiology, 1990), 624 pp. Details
• Fenner, Frank, Nature, Nurture and Chance: the Lives of Frank and Charles Fenner (Canberra: ANU Press, 2006), 356 pp, http://doi.org/10.22459/NNC.07.2006. Details
• Fenner, Frank and Curtis, David, The John Curtin School of Medical Research: the First Fifty Years, 1948-1998 (Gundaroo, New South Wales: Brolga Press, 2001), 565 (577) pp. Details
• Joklik, W. K., 'Famous institutions in virology: the Department of Microbiology, Australian National University and the Laboratory of Cell Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases', Archives of virology, 141 (5), 969-82. Details