The Council of the Society was delighted to learn that Fellow and former Society President, Emeritus Professor Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN of the School of Chemistry at UNSW Sydney has been awarded the 2023 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Leighton Memorial Medal, which recognises eminent services to chemistry in Australia. Brynn is a retired analytical chemist and the Honorary Dean of Emeriti at UNSW. He served as President of the Royal Society of NSW during the years 2016–17, and in 2018, he became a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to science in the discipline of chemistry, to professional societies and to sport through illicit drug profiling”.
Professor Hibbert’s research focuses on measuring the chemical world, including contributions to naming new elements and the International System of Units through his involvement with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He has been recognised for his work as ‘high impact’ on society by ARC’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment 2019. From 1987 until his retirement in 2013, Brynn Hibbert occupied the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at UNSW. For the past 14 years, he has dedicated his time to editing the 2023 edition of the IUPAC Orange Book.
The Council of the Society extends its warm congratulations to our former President, Brynn Hibbert, on this recognition of his lifelong contributions to chemistry in Australia.