Lecture 3
“Three great Australians and horse racing”
Emeritus Professor Brynn Hibbert
School of Chemistry
University of NSW
Thursday 6 September 2018
Mitchell Theatre, Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
Professor Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN talked about three great Australians: two scientists and a sports person; or two men and a woman; or two of British descent and an indigenous person; or two law-abiding people and an embezzler; or a stalwart of the RSNSW and two who probably never heard of the Society. These great Australians did not know each other but are connected by one of the oldest activities in the colony: horse racing. The first horse race was in 1810, and Royal Randwick, where some of the story evolves, became the home of the Australian Jockey Club in 1860.
Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN occupied the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at the University of New South Wales from his arrival from England in 1987 until his retirement in 2013 His research interests are in metrology and statistics in chemistry, ionic liquids and electroanalytical chemistry, but he also does a sideline in expert opinion, scientific fraud and presenting science to the public. More recently he has become a go-to expert witness in matters of drugs (of abuse, and sports). He is the immediate Past President of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2018. He has published around 260 papers, 5 books and 3 patents.
The Royal Society of NSW and the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts — the two oldest institutions in NSW dedicated to education — are proud to present a collaborative lecture program, Great Australians You’ve Never Heard Of. Following the success of the Enlightenment series, Great Australians You’ve Never Heard Of follows the underpinning Enlightenment idea that “the freedom to use your own intelligence” enabled remarkable people to create the extraordinary society we live in. Yet few of those special people are recognized today, nor is the context of their contributions understood by the beneficiaries of their initiatives. Over the course of four lectures, this series sets about identifying some of those people.
Other lectures in the series
22 June 2018 — Thomas Keneally AM DistFRSN “A Tasmanian convict who went from an Irish rebel to become a Governor”
23 July 2018 - Hon. Em. Professor Peter Baume AC DistFRSN “The man from Ballarat who injected himself with the myxoma virus”
6 September 2018 — Emeritus Professor D. Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN "Three great Australians and horse racing”
12 November 2018 — Professor Alison Bashford FRSN FAHA FBA, “Griffith Taylor: geology and geography from the Terra Nova to Seaforth”