Working for people you admire 11 Nov 200818 Sep 2017 Right now on the Australian ABC network they are reshowing a program that was first shown in April this year on Professor Sir Gustav Nossal AO [and a three line slew of fruit salad of awards, qualifications, and honours]. The transcript is here, but it doesn’t do justice to the man himself. Gus, as he likes to be called, is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met, and the one who I count working for as a great honour, when I was the communications manager at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, where I worked while I did my PhD, for ten years (the PhD took six). He discovered monoclonal antibodies, while working to establish Burnet’s theory of clonal selection, and after retirement worked to deliver aboriginal reconciliation. More than any other “white” man, he was the one who was responsible for that. Gus has an amazing ability to remember every person he has ever met, their family’s names, and circumstances. When the wife of a security guard at the adjacent Royal Melbourne Hospital died, Gus was at the funeral. He was the only management member there. He was the only one who knew. He is one of the few people who I think is wholly admirable. The two years he was director while I was there, and the eight years after when I spent as much time doing work for him as I did when he hadn’t retired, were the best of my pre-academic life. Who do you admire who you worked for? General Science History
Book Book review 27 Jun 2009 A guest review by Richard Harter, a member of the Talk.Origins Old Ones… The Medea Hypothesis, Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive?, Peter Ward, 2009, Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, ISBN-13: 978-0-691-13075-0 Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Arnhart on Hitler’s Ethic 9 Sep 2009 Larry Arnhart has a pretty solid review of Richard Weikert’s latest anti-Darwin guilt-by-association text linking Darwin to Hitler. However, I think he gives too much away. Read More
Education If only he had used his science for niceness, instead of evil 11 Sep 2010 In the Great Tone Debate, it seems to me that we have been overlooking some of the crucial elements of mixed strategies. Something that works in one case may not work in another, and so general arguments that one should be nice or dickish all the time are going to… Read More
You already have a job, Jason. No need to brownnose 😉 I didn’t say Gus was the only guys I worked for that I admire.
You already have a job, Jason. No need to brownnose 😉 I didn’t say Gus was the only guys I worked for that I admire.
I’m lucky to currently work for someone I admire. He’s an ex-military police commander, and a better diplomat, or more compassionate human being, you will not find.
I never worked for him directly, but I nominate Richard Woolcott, now (though well into his 70s) reemerging as Rudd’s envoy to persuade the region to consider creating a new supra-regional organisation. He has amazing diplomatic skills, an ability to relate to almost anyone, and was widely respected and liked in the region. After retirement Woolcott became increasingly vocal (in his moderate and polite way) about the Howard government’s (mis)behaviour, its disregard of the rule of law and civil rights, and the damage it was doing to Australia’s international image.